The advertisement in question, which joked about sexual violence, was also broadcast on television. Even written down, it sounds disgusting.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 ad was banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being irresponsible and offensive. The ad relied on humor derived from humiliating the man in the ad and implicitly threatening him with painful, non-consensual penetration. It is part of the “Replacers” advertising campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, featuring Hollywood actors Terry Crews, Nikki Glaser, and Peter Stormare. Of the several Replacers commercials, the banned one features Glaser and Stormare as replacement airport security guards who take the place of guards too immersed in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

When a male traveler steps up to security, Glaser and Stormare’s characters take advantage of the situation. Glaser pretends to steal his watch. Then, Stormare informs the man that he has been randomly selected for a pat-down and tells him to remove all his clothes except his shoes. Glaser’s character continues the charade while Stormare puts a body scanner device in the man’s mouth and tells him to bite down because he will be using it dry. The ad ran on YouTube, Channel 5, and ITV ahead of the game’s November release. Afterwards, the ASA received at least nine complaints that the ad trivialized sexual assault.

Activision Blizzard stated that Clearcast had reviewed the ad prior to broadcast and that it had not aired near programs attractive to children and young people under 16. The company added that the situation depicted was deliberately implausible and parodic, the humor referred more to male discomfort than to sexualization, and the ad did not sexualize invasive frisking. The company also pointed out that the frisking was not shown and that the ad did not contain explicit images.

This wasn’t enough for the ASA, however. Although the organization acknowledged that there were no explicit images, it concluded that the humor stemmed from the man’s humiliation and implicit threat of painful, non-consensual penetration rather than from his discomfort. The ad will not reappear in the UK in its current form. However, since Black Ops 7 came out a few months ago, it’s worth considering whether Activision will discontinue the ad campaign altogether and leave it only on YouTube.

The ASA is not alone in concluding that the humor centered on the fact that the man in the ad was subjected to non-consensual penetration in public. Judging by the comments on YouTube, many viewers understood the “joke,” and several questioned what the ad achieved in terms of convincing anyone to buy or play Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Source: WCCFTech, BBC