Kane & Lynch ads banned in the UK

By Robert Purchese Published 9 April, 2008

Because of violence towards women.

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.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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