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Kane & Lynch ads banned in the UK News

PC Xbox 360 PlayStation 3
News by Robert Purchese

9 April, 2008

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned UK television and print ads for Kane & Lynch because they depict violence towards women.

After receiving 26 complaints the ASA declared the material likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and said it breached responsible Advertising Standards Codes.

"The majority of the complainants believed (the) ad was offensive, because it included shocking images, which condoned violence, particularly towards women," explained the ASA.

Game publisher Eidos argued the telly ad was shown after the 9pm watershed and that print promotions were not supposed to be seen by children.

Future Publishing was also drawn into the debate as one of the adverts appeared in Edge magazine.

"Although we noted the image in the ads was not dissimilar to some of the images shown as part of the editorial content of Edge and Total Film magazines, we considered that the portrayal of violence it contained, with particular regard to the female hostage, was graphic and too shocking to be seen in any medium," stated the ASA.

Kane & Lynch was released last year and follows one psychopath and one schizophrenic as they escape from death row and embark on a life of crime; hardly bedside reading.

Pop over to our Kane & Lynch review to see what we made of it.

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Comments: 1-25 of 25 in total

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asphaltcowboy
09/04/08 @ 15:27
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Curious... it's already been out and advertised for ages!
clean515
09/04/08 @ 15:36
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The UK are worse than the US now.
dr_shambles
09/04/08 @ 15:40
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Good. It was a rubbish game, and an awful ad.
Psychotext
09/04/08 @ 15:46
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26 complaints. Wow.

We should start an EG complaint club and get adverts we don't like taken off the air. =)
miiiguel
09/04/08 @ 15:48
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Hugo Chavez also forbided Simpsons from Venezuela's TV, due to be unsuitable to children.

But... UK?
Ridicule.
THEGREATMADMAN
09/04/08 @ 16:03
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*sigh*

I'm getting sick of this nanny state
DUFFKING
09/04/08 @ 16:12
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"We should start an EG complaint club and get adverts we don't like taken off the air. =) "

That's not a bad idea, less of those bloody adverts for the Wii with people acting like prats.
Double0_Jensen
09/04/08 @ 16:39
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"The asa are a bunch of tits, they also banned that new volkswagen advert with the singing dog."

The ASA rejected the complaints, it was Volkswagen who withdrew the ad to avoid any further bad PR.

That said, the ASA are a bunch of tits. They blocked a Mini ad from production because the Matians (who were in the ad, natch) weren't wearing seatbelts in their spaceship.

As for this one, it's rated 18, it's on after the watershed - don't we once again return to it being the parents responsibility to keep their children from seeing this if they don't think it's suitable?
Edited 1 times, most recently on 09/04/08 @ 17:40
repairmanjack
09/04/08 @ 16:46
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Another win for timely intervention.
Kryon
09/04/08 @ 17:04
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Violence against women? I thought everybody did it though?
DFawkes
09/04/08 @ 17:34
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I can think of far better reasons to not buy Kane and Lynch than a banned advert. The big one being I don't like it.
NthSimulachum
09/04/08 @ 18:18
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Why does ASA's statement remind me of the opening disclaimer for South Park?
Muddtallica
09/04/08 @ 18:21
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Let's stop degrading women, shall we? Please? Let's have a laugh with them, not at them. Let's have a laugh at work, with women...at us.
Tyronne
09/04/08 @ 18:40
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free publicity you say ? well it will get it a few extra sales.
Muddtallica
09/04/08 @ 18:51
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lavalant...to be honest, I was just quoting David Brent, to see if anyone would notice. Everything I know about life, I learned from him.
Dynamize
09/04/08 @ 19:40
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Equalitylol.
Nero85
09/04/08 @ 20:38
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So, we're talking about this right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZVi_fY3W...
Nithron
10/04/08 @ 01:23
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Maybe i'm just playing devil's advocado here, but if I can kinda see where they're coming from. The image isn't particularly nice to look at, and y'know, if you're a gamer and you're playing the game it's all well and good, but people don't choose to look at these images when they're on TV or in print, they're pretty much forced upon them.

Also, look on the bright side: The less images of violence associated with games in the media, the less the public will associate games with violence.
Triggerhappytel
10/04/08 @ 01:34
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Erm... this is timely; aren't they about four months late to try and stop any advertising...?!
Slipstream
10/04/08 @ 03:00
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Ha, that hoe got owned xD...sorry
bobmar360
10/04/08 @ 07:28
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it's a load of old rubbish, if it was Lara Croft shooting a fucking Bear or Tiger there wouldn't be any complaints from them then would there?

IMO it's sexist, women want equal fucking rights, look at that bitch from Perfect Dark Zero - no complaints about her killing men.

Nillsens
10/04/08 @ 09:58
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Violence against men is okay though.
Kirly_Wombat
10/04/08 @ 10:27
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lavalant "The asa are a bunch of tits, they also banned that new volkswagen advert with the singing dog. "

Double0_Jensen "The ASA rejected the complaints, it was Volkswagen who withdrew the ad to avoid any further bad PR."

What the hell was wrong with it I wonder? Because the dog was riding in the front? I liked it, one of the few ads that didnt annoy me, as most car ads do.

As for K&L, seems a bit late to have all this after its been out for so long.
HelloWorld
10/04/08 @ 11:21
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Violence "towards" women? What about violence "towards" people in general? The ad also includes some poor guy getting shot to pieces, and they complain about the lady getting slapped. What a lot of crap.
Mentalist(air)
10/04/08 @ 12:48
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The quiet dog doesn't look happy.

Comments: 1-25 of 25 in total

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