A spate of shootings followed by a MyFox Chicago TV news report questioning the appropriateness of GTA IV advertising has seen the adverts removed from certain locations across Chicago.
The MyFox report called into question advertising a violent game like GTA IV across the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) network of buses and locations. This is following a high level of recent shootings in the Chicago area and a link trying to be established between the two in some bizarre after-the-fact logic.
Ron Huberman, president of the CTA, seems to have given in to pressure and decided that the adverts were not appropriate, ordering their removal from CTA locations. The same thing happened in 2006 in Boston to GTA Vice City Stories advertising and in 2004 with GTA San Andreas again in Chicago.
From watching the MyFox report there is a single comment I agree with wholeheartedly when a member of the public states:
As a parent you should censor your child yourself, we shouldn’t block advertisement because you don’t know how to do your job as a parent.
The decision to remove GTA IV advertising does not seem to have a reason behind it other than certain people believe it leads to violence. It is just advertising for a game that carries an 18 rating that kids younger than that should not be playing.
If we are applying logic to this then any advertising for a violent 18-rated film should also have been taken down if it existed. The adverts in question are also not violent themselves, just showing the characters from the game next to the name and street date.
Read more at GamePolitics.com
Tags: lcd, mobiles, amps, gaming
