The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a series of complaints against Nokia for its N-Gage gaming handset. The advertising campaign is a series of posters and television commericals that resulted in several complaints to the industry watchdog.
One advertisement appeared as a poster and showed a photograph of an alleyway at night. The text in the middle of the advertisement stated "This is where I took on three guys ... and made them cry like babies."
Nokia had argued that the photograph did not show people or signs of violence or attack. They insisted that the text "I took on three guys ... and made them cry like babies" referred to winning a game against three players on the N-Gage game deck. The Authority considered that the photograph showed a realistically dark and lonely place that was a likely location for assault and an unusual location for game-playing. It considered that the advertisement could be seen to refer to a violent situation. The Authority concluded that the advertisement was likely to cause serious or widespread offence or distress to readers. It asked the advertisers not to repeat the advertisement.
In related news, the UK's largest phone retailer, the Carphone Warehouse also got a telling off after a complaint over the technicality of one of the retailers adverts for free handsets."
Posted to the site on 5th March 2004
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/10781.php