violent video game advert has been banned from London Underground.

Advertising watchdogs said the advert, which shows a wrecked car next to a burning tyre, was "irresponsible" and likely to encourage violence and dangerous driving.

The advert was for the world's biggest games maker, Electronic Arts' Burnout Dominator.

The advert included the headline "Inner peace through outer violence".

It comes a week after censors banned another game, Manhunt2, from hitting the market.

EA said the advert's message was that playing the Burnout Dominator game might relieve stress and tension in real life.

But, in its ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority said: "We considered that the vivid depiction of the crashed car and burning tyre, combined with the slogans implication that people could achieve inner peace through acts of violence, was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

"We noted Electronic Arts argument that the ad's message was that playing the Burnout Dominator game might relieve stress and tension in real life.

"We considered the ad's placement on the London Underground meant that it would be viewed by many, including young people.

"We considered that the images of a car that seemed to have crashed at high speed and a burning tyre, together with a reference to violence, could be seen to condone a violent lifestyle, anti-social behaviour or dangerous driving. We concluded that the ad was irresponsible."


Via Metro

lol so wierd

what are they on about. yeah am sure we are all gonna go out and smash our cars up! duhh!

I find this quite frankly pathetic. Seeing a car crash or even a wreck of a car does not prompt me to go out and attempt this myself and im almost 100% sure that even those who are not in the right frame of mind will acknoloage that its just an advert. Nothing more or nothing less. Then there’s the argument that in live shows, police shows and other types of programs you see murder being committed, real car crashes, fights and in some cases people jumping off buildings. It comes down to one thing: entertainment and viewing pleasure. The things w see on our screens do influence us, but the majority of people will agree that it wont make us do anything if we dont want too.

Seems the sensors are going insane at the moment to try and please the right wing christians in the U.K (of which there (thank god, no pun intended) aren't too many) and other pressure groups. I can just about understand manhunt, seeing as there was that huge fuss after a kid killed his best friend with a screwdriver and blamed it on the game. But banning the advert because it "was likely to cause serious or widespread offence. " is ridiculous, if the tag was:


Burnout Dominator - GO SMASH THINGS UP!!!...come on...all the cool kids are doing it...here's how you hotwire your dad's car...and this is where to smash into to cause most damage to everything around you.


I might understand, but it quite clearly doesn't even come close to implying that.