Viewers upset over 'offensive' Wii ad

March 29th, 2007, 19:30 Posted By: Shrygue

via Computer and Video Games


Wii television commercial has been brought to the attention of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after receiving several complaints from viewers that found the "depiction of violence in the ad offensive and disturbing".

The advertisement highlights the unique motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote by showing players of varying ages swinging the Remote like a sword to make an on-screen character kill enemies with a sword. Other scenes showed the player using the Remote like a gun.

The ASA received 17 complaints from viewers who found the images disturbing, particularly of one of a player slashing the Wii Remote which cuts to an in-game man falling to the floor clutching his head.

One viewer said the scenes were reminiscent of hostage videos released by terrorists in Iraq, although the ASA ruled that "viewers were unlikely to link the ad to recent events in Iraq."

Others said the advertisements should not be show later, when children won't be watching.

Speaking on behalf of the ASA, Leo Burnett defended Nintendo saying that the sword-fighting scenes, which were taken from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, were cartoon-like, lacking blood and containing fictional monsters, reports VNU.

The agency concluded that viewers would recognise that the ad was intended to promote videogames for Wii, which are designed to be played by gamers of all ages.

The ASA said: "We noted that the ad featured scenes from many different games, several of which were family-oriented and involved, for example, playing golf, tennis and baseball, fishing and bursting balloons.

"We considered that the scenes from Red Steel did not feature explicit or graphic violence and were only one part of the ad, which primarily promoted a games console aimed at people of all ages and running games in a variety of genres."

There are 8 comments - Join In and Discuss Here