Talking about banned adverts, I was blown away when I first saw Kane & Lynch: Death Men poster. But after receiving so many complaints, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)in the UK has banned this "graphic" and "shocking" poster of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men XBox video game. The ASA ordered the game's publisher, Eidos Interactive not to print or broadcast any ads created for the game again as they were deemed inappropriate for an "untargeted medium."
Eidos's press ad promoting the game - about two violent mercenaries - showed a woman with a gagged and tear-stained face having her head held back by one of the men, who stood behind her pulling her hair and wearing surgical gloves. A second man, who held a rifle with his finger on the trigger, stood behind him.
A TV ad for Kane & Lynch showed scenes involving the two central characters from the game shooting guns among a group of hostages. One of the characters used the butt of his rifle as a club accompanied by the sound of a loud crunch, while another scene showed a man with a bloodied face apparently having his throat cut.
In another Kane & Lynch poster, which read: "Grittier and nastier in tone than anything you've seen before, the violence here is visceral, brutal and very, very real". This was seen by the ASA as possibly "condoning and glorifying real violence.
In its defence over the banned adverts, Eidos said that it had intended the poster image to be "cinematic" but it was not their intention to cause offence. [source]
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