Activision’s commercials for Call of Duty 2 and CoD2: Big Red One have garnered negative attention from Great Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority. Agreeing with complaints from three people, the ASA said the ads were misleading and cannot be shown again in their current form.
The adjudication, published today, is likely to send shockwaves through the industry as it focuses on the question of whether pre-rendered footage is an acceptable representation of a computer game - in its defence, Activision didn't argue that it was, but rather that using pre-rendered footage was "common practice".
In this case, the ASA received three complaints - two concerning Call of Duty 2 (PC, Xbox 360) and one concerning Big Red One (PS2, Xbox, Cube), both of which argued that the graphics used in the advert were superior to that of the game itself, and that viewers were being misled on those grounds.
The ASA's investigation revealed that the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) understood the adverts to be made of scenes taken from the games themselves, although apparently no checks were made because it wasn't until afterward, when contacting Activision about the complaints, that it was informed by the publisher that the computer-generated scenes had been produced solely for the ads. "They said they therefore immediately made the ads unacceptable for broadcast as they did not consider that this was common practice in such ads."
EuroGamer
While it’s good to see a government agency actually doing its prescribed job – in this case protecting the public from false advertising – it would be interesting to know if viewers actually take most ads at face value. Has anyone actually ever had a meal from a restaurant that looks as good as the ones pictured on television? Do you expect things to play, look or even taste exactly like they’re portrayed, or do you anticipate what’s on TV is more likely a bit larger than life?
I’d love to hear what you think. To get in on a discussion about this topic, head to the forums.
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