A controversial advertisement posted by Zynga on Facebook has been banned by the “Advertising Standards Authority” in the UK. The advertisement depicted a man wielding a knife with the ad copy of “From street thug to capo. Earn your street cred and be respected.” The Advertising Standards Authority, “the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media”, determined that the ad was inappropriate.
The ASA stated that “aggressive and threatening [...] and condoned violence and was irresponsible”. According to the Guardian, “Zynga blamed Facebook, claiming that the social networking website approved the ad.” Facebook ultimately removed the ad “because it breached internal advertising guidelines that [prohibit] images of weapons”. While it may be much ado about nothing, it was interesting to see an actual advertising authority step in to block an ad on Facebook.
As for Zynga, I’m sure someone in the marketing department thought it was a creative idea, unfortunately Zynga’s ads will probably be getting more scrutiny after this little mishap.
given the UK's stance on knife violence and the "problem" they have with it, i think zynga totally dropped the ball in this case and needs to formally apologize or whatever they are being asked to do.
then again choosing not to feed off of a global disaster might not be bad for biz either.
people arent as stupid as zynga likes to think and we all see how they are trying to cash in on the oil spill
further…. this is far from the first or only image that zynga has used for mafia wars ads that depicts weapons and or violence.
Comment by Robyn B. Holmes — July 14, 2010 @ 10:16 am
This is the very reason I do not accept invitations to the games. Seems like something a bit less violent and more subtle could be developed.
Comment by connie savage — July 14, 2010 @ 10:21 am
Looks ridiculous to me. They should mind real violence, not games. (No, I don't play Mafia Wars. I don't like it.)
Comment by Francesco Spreafico — July 14, 2010 @ 10:39 am
Surely this should tell Facebook that just because a company makes one ad that adheres to their policies, doesn't mean that all of them will be safe and legal. Ridiculous.
Comment by Mike — July 14, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Heres the thing. If anyone ever took the time to check out Mafia Wars, they would see that it is probably one of the most non-violent games out there. Its all text based with stationary graphics! Theres no shooting, blood, guts or cursing. I love how a few people jump all over the ad image, but wouldnt think to feel the same about a friendly ad that leads to a porn! Talk about judging a book..
Comment by John — July 14, 2010 @ 11:30 am
This is good @least users would get peaceful Ads which would put people on ease to spend maximum time on facebook.
Comment by Yogin — July 14, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
not surprised…. We know that Zynga may be gone from the FB apps the next months…
Comment by Mihalis O Energeiako — July 14, 2010 @ 1:49 pm
"Zynga blamed Facebook, claiming that the social networking website approved the ad."
Really, Zynga? This is your excuse?
Comment by Tom Ditmars — July 14, 2010 @ 6:33 pm
You link to the Guardian article links back directly to this post. It should be corrected.
Comment by Guest — July 15, 2010 @ 6:27 am
Dumb dumb dumb. Zynga needs to own it
Comment by Dave Peck — July 15, 2010 @ 12:33 pm
I don't understand. I've seen thousands of ads on FB with people carrying swords, staves, blasting magic spells, holding guns, depicting cannons, vehicles with mounted artillery, hammers and pickaxes, vampire fangs dripping blood… and they get upset over a knife? Worse, it doesn't even particularly look like a knife, it's white and blocky–it could be a playbill for all the detail you can muster off of it.
This seems like a very random move on the part of the advertising authority. Was that particular image really that scary?
Comment by mmm — July 16, 2010 @ 7:04 am
@ mmm : it isnt that its overly scary its just that some countries use propaganda to scare the public into thinking they need the government protect them from all the "bad people".
so after legislation is made prohibiting casual possession of a knife,they use advertising to help keep their "clean" image for the public,thereby convincing the public that the government is helping to prevent images that encourage acceptance of weapon use.
Comment by Robyn B. Holmes — July 23, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
maybe somebody which has authority got bitter time with zynga games
)..find lots of curses from ppl got hacked their account on zynga games..somekind of vendetta hahaha
Comment by liam — October 14, 2010 @ 3:34 pm