A complaint by Jack Thompson has prompted Miami's transit authority to remove ads for Grand Theft Auto IV from local bus shelters.
Miami thus joins Chicago as the second major US city to pull GTA IV ads from its public transit system in recent days.
GamePolitics reported on Thursday that Thompson had complained about the GTA IV ads to Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez. The GTA IV ads were apparently removed sometime on Friday afternoon. Hugh Chen, Miami-Dade Transit's deputy director of operations, told GamePolitics on Friday evening, via e-mail:
The posters were removed after a review of our approval process and contract... Be assured that the circumstances around placing and removing these specific posters were reviewed before action was taken. We are governed by our contract with our shelter contractor and County ordinances.
A spokesman for GTA IV publisher Take-Two Interactive said the company was still reviewing the situation. A spokesman for the ESA referred inquiries back to Take-Two.
For his part, Thompson wasted no time in crowing about the removal of the ads in a news release:
...Jack Thompson has today persuaded the Miami-Dade Transit System to pull all advertisements for the Grand Theft Auto IV cop-killing simulation game from its bus stops.
In the wake of this success, Thompson is proceeding to get all GTA IV ads pulled from all US transit systems since such ads clearly violate promises made by the [ESRB], found right at its web site, not to place “Mature-rated” game ads in venues that will be seen by teens.
However, Thompson's contention about the ESRB appears to be incorrect. An ESRB spokesman told GP on Friday, "Considering the overwhelmingly adult demographic profile of mass transit riders... the placement of GTA IV ads in these types of outlets would typically not be in violation of [Ad Review Council] guidelines." Nor do the advertising guidelines listed on the ESRB website appear to support Thompson's contention.
Thompson may be confusing the ESRB ad guidelines with a 2002 report on the marketing of media violence by the Federal Trade Commission which addressed limiting the advertising of M-rated games in media where children constitute a specific percentage of the potential audience. The FTC report notes that the video game industry has a self-regulatory standard prohibiting print ads when children comprise more than 45% of the likely audience.
In his news release, the embattled Thompson also alleged a conspiracy between the video game industry and the judge who presided over his nine-day trial on Florida Bar ethics charges last November. That judge's recommendation on Thompson's future status as an attorney is expected in August.
GP: Readers, don't forget to Send Us Your GTA IV Bus Pix (Before they’re all gone)...
Comments
If I start rattling off e-mails by the dozens, killer faxes and lawsuit threats restrain me. If I appear on Fox News then get a priest ASAP!
So basically he just pulled a "stop it or I'll tell your mom"
A truly infantile jerkass.
The power of not being insane compels you! The power of not being insane compels you!
Well, ostensibly, he’s using the old Japanese “how can you bring so much shame to your mother” technique but realistically he’s just seeking attention.
It’s the same thing with the bus ad crusade. Thompson’s not stupid; he knows the endeavor is pointless and won’t accomplish anything. He does it just to keep his name out there.
It doesn’t matter to Thompson what people think of him, as long as people are thinking of him.
Andrew Eisen
Today, the Miami-Dade Transit System. Tomorrow, the world!
take two needs to stop this before it becomes a trend everywhere .
"You are one sad, strange little man."
Put a bloody END to this garbage, NOW, Judge.
Is somebody going to have to leave this control freak Neanderthal, out in the wilderness, without a RIDE, just to get him out of our hair? It can bloody happen, if that's what it takes.
Personally I think a bigger story would be to challenge the ruling and win on grounds of discriminating against games as a media. Thats the kind of story that would reach hundreds of thousands.
But seriously, if we aren't going to put this control-freak Mama's boy down for the count, we should all just move to Communist China... As long as you don't bother anyone or have female children, the govt there is too busy murdering your neighbors to be arsed with what you're doing, Let's just move over there, be quiet, and see what happens to Jack when he sends the courts photos of gay porn, and offends and sues the judges.
Go for it Jack, go to China and do your shit. See what it gets you.
And don't bother with your wasted, idle, sissy threats on me; you can't touch me legally, and have way less power over me physically, I mean WAY less.
If you want to be your mother so badly, just go for it, but leave the rest of us out of it.
1) Child sees ad for GTAIV
2) Child, impressionable as he is, wants game
3) Child goes to purchase game, either by self or via adult
Fair enough. Pity he forgets 4):
4a) Child is refused service at checkout after failing to provide valid ID
4b) Adult, knowledgable about GTA, refuses to buy game for child
4c) Adult heeds warning/advice of checkout clerk and chooses not to buy game for child
Oh yeh wait, not a perfect world. Sigh.
4d) Kid ends up playing the game somehow; nothing bad happens.
Andrew Eisen
I think we found the one capable of winning the competition
Seriously, they should make a show!
...Really? Are we in Bizarro World?
Yeah. Rob Schneider would have even less of a chance of winning the biggest douche in the universe award
wonder how many parent groups would go nuts over that tho....
But would he cash it, knowing where it came from?
*shakes 8-ball*
"ALL SIGNS POINT TO YES"
(Everyone knows he'd throw morals out the window for the sake of a paycheck.)
"Cop Killing Game"
And
"Breaking the ESRB's advertising laws"
as a means of hyping up sensationalism and getting what he wants.
Only us as gamers know what he really wants, and that is to limit the exposure of GTA 4 adds to kids.
But really, if a parents does not want to buy GTA 4 for their kids, all they need to say is NO.
Advertising is only effective when people say YES to it and with their own choise.
I feel that the Bus Transit companies should be aware of who Jack Thompson really is, and to know that his Lawyers Lisisnce is soon to be suspended from the Florida Bar.
Also the Videogame Industry needs to stand up and fight for it's own right not to be pushed around like this.
If they do nothing, that just encourages more people to be just like Jack Thompson knowing that the industry would just do nothing and they get away with this.
All I can say is JT... whata'douche.
I would watch a video of that just for entertainment.
Anything to hurt sales, or to make him feel better about his repeated failures.
@Condemned 2 fan
I wonder how many would be obscenities and threats.
"H,hey, HEY!!!, don't you go in there, ooooh, you'll be in jail by the end of the night industry thug!!!! I can see the bloodlust in your eyes!!!"
Likely get asked away by police after trying ot steal and destroy people's copies of the games.
Doesn't this violate Rockstar's constitutional rights? Check out Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego, 1981:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0453_0490_ZS.html
Actually the trend is the opposite, church attendance among young people is up. More young people today say they believe in God and have at least some spiritual faith than at any time in the last 20 years or so. The high point of agnostic, atheist youth actually came in the mid 1970's.
What IS down is the number of (Thank God) is those who ascribe to JT's "my way or the highway, if you don't believe exactly as I do you're going to burn in hell" fundamentalists.
I guess its the difference between having FAITH And spiritualism and adherence to dogmatic religion.
@ Kurisu7885
You are correct about how he would more then likely act if he did do something like that at a midnight sale because of what he did in the past. The best thing to do with a person like Jack Thompson is call the police because it is hard to legally deal with a maniac like that until a judge does something.
I am so mad that the officials in Miami acted so pathetic by pulling down the ads instead of telling Jack Thompson to stay out of the situation.
''
lol... what...?
Its wrong to advertise GTA in wrestling ad breaks... wrestling...
grown men slamming each other into the floor, hitting each other with chairs, planks of wood etc to the amusement of a large crowd in the name of 'entertainment'...
so he has no problem with REAL HUMANS actually being violent toward each other... but the bare advertisement of a game that contains violence is innappropriate (no violence is actually shown in the ads, just that the full game does include it)..
the only defence he can possibly have is the 'well wrestling isnt real, so its not reaaaaaal violence...'
yeah fictional violence.. and GTA is what... oh yeah.. fictional violence. Except 10 times more fictional and 10 times less suggestive because it contains polygonal models rather than humans...
man JT infuriates me with his bizaare logic and 3rd person talking.
@JT come and have a go if you think your all powerful!!
Also, at the end of the article it said "In his news release, the embattled Thompson also alleged a conspiracy between the video game industry and the judge who presided over his nine-day trial on Florida Bar ethics charges last November." He's trying to use the whole GTA IV ad controversy to try to paint himself as a victim and gain sympathy. I think he thinks that if he can get people to feel sorry for him he won't be disbarred.
I don't know about the rest of you, but August can't get here soon enough for me. I can't wait till the gaming industry is rid of that asshole.
FUCK!!!