Misleading Game Propaganda Outlawed
The UK has put its foot down regarding “misleading” advertisements for video games. We all know the ones…those beautiful trailers that show such realism and stunning attention to detail that we think ‘wow…I simply must have that game’, so out we go to the store, fork over the required fortune and happily pop it into our platform of choice for a session of astounding gaming. But lo, what is this? The graphics are not near as pretty and you’ve wasted $50 on a disc that eventually will become a very expensive coaster.
Activision drew the ire of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)with their promotional material for the Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty: Big Red One games. Says the ASA, quoted in GameIndustry.biz:
The ASA noted that the ads did not include any indication that the images shown did not reflect the quality of graphics of the games. While the scenes used communicated the themes of the game, they were not accurate representations of the graphics in the games themselves. We considered that this was misleading.
“The ads breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.2 (Implications). They must not be shown again in their present forms,” the adjudication concluded.
Publishers all over the industry are nowchewing their lips and hoping this goes away quietly so that they don’t have to represent their games as they actually are, because that would be, you know, honest.
Can you imagine what would happen if this applied to all advertising? We’d actually have to look at real people in fashion magazines, no airbrushing, and my Big Mac, would look exactly like the fresh, crisp piece of hamburger glory that it is, not a flattened soggy mess.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: News
4 opinions for Misleading Game Propaganda Outlawed
Cal
Feb 23, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Whey hey - finally someone is acting on this.
Looking back on it, whenever I’ve seen trailers before, I have subconsciouly blocked out the quality of detail and looked more at what was happening (if that makes any sense). I have never been able to get the detail shown on these trailers on my PC and often wondered if I had some setting wrong. Now I wonder no more.
As for the soggy big mac, take it out of the box at the counter, give it back to them and say you want “That one” (pointing at pretty picture on wall). You get some interesting results…
the play girlz gaming blog: because guys aren’t the only players » Lara Croft’s Voice in Tomb Raider Legend
Feb 24, 2006 at 12:25 am
[…] And if you haven’t seen the kick-ass trailer taking this into consideration, of course, here you go: […]
Erin
Feb 24, 2006 at 3:02 am
Cal, I tend to agree with you. When I look at an amazing trailer, I’m rarely blown away by it because somewhere in my head is a little filter that says “the actual game will not look like that”. I kind of slough it off as being an interesting look at what the game could be, but know too that they are completely unrealistic.
I tried your Big Mac advice yesterday and walked out of McD’s dripping with Coca-Cola, so…thanks for that.
Cal
Feb 26, 2006 at 8:45 pm
“… dripping with Coca-Cola…”
ROTFLMAO
Thanks now I have coffee all over my keyboard - man that stuff burns coming out your nose!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: