Complaints about Bully ad dismissed

By Ellie Gibson Published 9 July, 2008

"Unlikely to cause serious offence."

The Advertising Standards Authority has declined to take action over complaints about a TV advert for Bully: Scholarship edition.

The ad showed hero Jimmy Hopkins firing a catapult, two characters giving someone a wedgie and a cook sneezing into a pot, amongst other things.

According to the ASA website 31 people complained about the ad. Some said it was "offensive and distasteful" and claimed it "glorified, trivialised and encouraged" bullying, while others thought it was shown at an inappropriate time.

Take-Two refuted these accusations and suggested that "sensationalist coverage of the actual game had coloured complainants' perception" of it.

The ASA also dismissed the complaints, stating, "Although many might find the name and content of the game to be in poor taste, the content of the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence."

Why not judge for yourself?

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (11) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DanWhitehead #1 4 years ago

    I just flushed my own head down the toilet, so think what it could do to an impressionable child.

  • Quint2020 #2 4 years ago

    Somebody think of the children!!

  • iancognito #3 4 years ago

    I used to watch Grange Hill as a child and had nightmares about being chased by a flying sausage with a fork in it.

  • RandolphScott #4 4 years ago

    @iancognito

    You made me lose egg sandwich out of my mouth

  • Darren #5 4 years ago

    Are people really offended by such trivial things or do they just like to whinge? I mean if they can't cope with the content of the Bully ad then I don't know how they dare step outside their front door. Perhaps they don't... LOL

    Like many before them, I suspect those people pre-judged the advert by its title even before they saw the content. Whatever, 31 complaints out of. probably, hundreds of thousands of viewers suggests that these people really need to wake up and take a look at the real world then they'd have something to complain about.

  • Rirekon #6 4 years ago

    Yay, more people who don't get Bully!

  • kangarootoo #7 4 years ago

    After watching the advert, they could have probably done without the brief scene showing the lead character slapping a weedy looking kid in the face about 3 times. That isn't exactly helping them avoid unfounded charges of glamourising bullying.

    Aside from that though, I would have to agree that the people who are complaining don't actually seem to be describing what they have seen with their eyes, instead regurgitating what they have read in one or more tabloid papers.

  • Triggerhappytel #8 4 years ago

    As long as the game sells well enough to warrant a full-on sequel, complain away! After all, no publicity is bad publicity.

  • Katanax #9 4 years ago

    Hasn't this game been out for ages anyway?

    Jesus, whinging before release, whinging during release, and now more fucking whinging months after release... Well ignoring them isn't making them go away, and they obviously aren't getting tired - though I have to say, I'd be fucking knackered if I put half as much effort into policing society as some of these jumped up moralistic fuck-knuckles.

  • Kyle #10 4 years ago

    Christ, if people complain about this then they should logically be complaining about Dennis the fucking Menace as well.

  • Farzlepot #11 4 years ago

    The content of this game is tame compared to what kids in real life get up to. They aren't as impressionable or stupid as some people like to believe, just bloody cruel - kids evolved past the sort of jovial bullying portrayed in B:SE, and have moved on to knives and hardcore drugs.

    Besides, nobody complains about ads for war games 'glamorising war'. Well, I guess people do, but there's no media storm about it.