Complaints Force Sony to pull Killzone Ads
In Toronto, roughly 300 bus shelter ads for SCE’s newest game release, Killzone 2, are being removed due to complaints by a local teacher, David Mirza, and a counselor, Pam McConnell. What concerned the two individuals was primarily the ad’s depection of a realistic warzone, “like Iraq” stated the teacher.
“I don’t think that when you’re in Scarborough, where we’re having to deal on a constant basis with violence, that does anything to help promote any kind of community renewal or even responsibility,” said Mirza.
Kyle Moffatt, the public relations specialist for SCEC who responded to the complaints, defended Mirza and McConnell’s stances. He stated that though SCEC doesn’t have control over the precise location of its advertisements, it does want to be respectful of community concerns, which is why the decision was made.
[Source]
16 Responses to “Complaints Force Sony to pull Killzone Ads”
your fighting space nazis!! how is that at all like iraq?
Good call by Sony. I can understand how some people might thing…”OMG, VIOLENT GAMES DON’T MAKES PEOPLE VIOLENT!”, but I’m sure having game ads depicting war in areas infested with gang violence doesn’t help the cause of trying to rebuild a community.
Ugh the world is too soft….everyone sues/cries over stupid things like this.
“ad’s depiction of a realistic warzone, ‘like Iraq’ ” How else do you want it depicted, with rainbows and prancing unicorn…War has also been violent and part of Human society.
This is sad….it is going to be our downfall…liberalism will weaken this country and not terrorism or disasters, too much liberal ideas and plans will bring this country to its knees…Ok political rant over.
I apologize to those who don’t want to hear this but this news is a perfect example.
lol stupid
Maybe the Canadians wouldn’t be so afraid of the Helghast if they had a true military to fight them off.
ridiculous.
While I can understand the concerns about the depiction of violence in a violent neighborhood’s affect on the people in that neighborhood,I don’t think removing these particular images will really have much of an impact on the problem.The problems obviously existed before the ads were placed.Realistically,I’m sure most of the people that might have been negatively impacted by the images have seen far worse depictions of REAL violence in regularly broadcast news reports. Trying to remove these images from the public consciousness is not going to eliminate violence. I don’t understand the logic in thinking that you can just erase “bad” things from people’s minds by trying to hide it from people.I think the more these things are exposed to people,the closer we all can come to understanding it and realizing the cause of it.Supressing knowledge of the “bad” things in life from people can only be done for so long,not indefinitely.If you try to keep people in a bubble and hide everything from them,how will they know how to deal with it when you’re not around to “protect” them? This is why I support freedom of speech.I am willing to accept that someone might say or do something that I will find offensive,just so I have the right to speak my mind even if someone else might find it offensive.That’s when you know you are a true American,you are willing to fight for someone else’s right to offend you with their non-violent expression as long as it doesn’t cause any actual physical harm to anyone.I don’t know what the laws in Canada are regarding that,but I think they need to take a cue from us Americans.
And come on,it’s just a game.These people need to take their good intentions and do something with them that’s actually going to make a real positive difference in people’s lives.Complaining about a bunch of video game advertisements is a waste of time. And was there any really offensive pictures on the ad?Like blood,and people being shot? Probably not.If it was just a couple of imaginary Helghast soldiers standing around with guns in their hands,who cares?Two people in Canada I guess.I wouldn’t want closed minded people like that teaching or counseling my kids.
^^ maybe u should summarize that post lol
this is just flat idiotic…. why not just worry about teaching students??
It is most unfortunate that a teacher cannot sieze the opportunity to use their ‘perceived objectionable’ ads as a chance to educate, rather than complain and have the issue covered up.
Well you have to remember that those who become teachers have a hard time dealing with the real world since they will never volunteer to protect the rights they have to teach kids the stupid stuff they teach in schools today. Evolution is not the beginning of life it is the middle of life. And Global Warming is that Global and not man made and it will eventually go the other way.
Science in the 70′s taught me that the earth tilts on its axis every so many centuries and with Dec 21, 2012 coming and most astronomers have said that all the planets in our galaxy will be in a straight line what do you think that will do to school violence…
Reality is just something you can not stop…
Ok… all the people easily offended.. stay home.. purchase everything online… dont’ go no where.. don’t talk to no one… just stay out of the adult’s way.. we’re trying to have fun, enjoy ourselves, and be responsible. We can’t do it with all these little children that can’t make decisions for themselves running around complaining all the time.
Seriously I don’t care if they’re 5 years old or 100… There’s gotta be a time in life when people can just learn to stop repressing such emotions…
Maybe if those gang members played more killzone they wouldn’t be so violent. After all in prisons they use GTA IV as a reward for prisoners that have been behaving well and then the violence dropped a lot in prison.
It’s not complicated.. people just need to understand basic concepts like… freedom… decison making skills, and most importantly how to function in the real world without getting offended by everything or trying to suppress everything. It’s a freaking game…
I don’t know when Iraqi soldiers got so decked out with all that gear, but they should be easy enough to spot so then why are we killing civilians there? Short answer? They don’t have awesome gear like that, he’s over exaggerating, most importantly if they think that it has something to do with Iraq… he needs some counceling… You have a problem if you automatically assume something like that.
What would happen if he saw 50 cents new game… YOu know where he goes to beat up terrorists? Geez talk about weak sauce.
I can see thier point of view I guess. i just want to know when everyone became so sensitive? Sometimes its just better to get over it.
cool….w/e who cares, the game is not perfect and controls still very sluggish IMO.
@ SPD55….I would not rely on information you learned in the 70s especially about Climate Change. They have ice cores that have proven that the rate of CO2 in the atmosphere has not climbed at such a rate that it currently is. It is a bigger problem than most people realize. I think many people think it will just blow over, that science is wrong. Whether or not this Climate Change/Global Warming is real, I for one am not comfortable taking that chance. Even if it is fake, just improving the way we treat our environment and the efficiency born out of the technological revolution will be well worth it. We will be more economically sound, healthier, and happier.
Lol, nobody has claimed that removing the ads would “erase” crime. It’s simply one small step towards trying to clean up a neighborhood that’s riddled with crime. I’m sure where most of us live having billboards with GTA4 prostitutes and Killzone 2 war ads has no impact but I’m sure for cities where prostitution is a problem and drive-by’s are a common occurrence, it does make a difference.
Seems like most people are more deeply upset about having the ads taken down then the teachers who found a problem with them.