The ad, entitled Blood on the Carpet, was created for games
developer Midway Games by London-based Maverick Media. It features
a boardroom scene in which a Mr Linn, the mysterious
trouble-shooter at a sales meeting, instructs two men to fight.
Punches lead to a pen being stabbed into an arm; then a water
jug is smashed over an executive's head – before his heart is
ripped from his chest. Mr Linn concludes proceedings by
decapitating another executive with his hat.
The ASA received one complaint over the ad, alleging that it was
offensive, violent and unsuitable to be viewed by children.
The ad was shown on viral tracking website viralchart.com and on
ttr2.co.uk, which publishes and links content targeted at 18 to
40-year-old men. Neither firm had received any complaints over the
ad. Representatives of the ttr2.co.uk site told the ASA that they
had considered the ad to be humorous, and had marked the clip as
SNSFW – Slightly Not Safe For Work.
According to Maverick Media, while apologising for any offence
caused, the video clip was suitable for the sites on which it was
placed.
But the ASA ruled that, “although the ad was intended to be
humorous, because it both condoned and glorified violence and
contained some scenes which could be emulated, it was
irresponsible.”
“The ad was likely to cause fear or distress and serious or
widespread offence and Midway Games had used shocking images to
attract attention to their product,” it added.
The watchdog told the firm not to repeat the approach and to
take advice when making ads in the future.
