British Bureaucrats Spank Sega for Outdated Condemned 2 Ad

If there is a more pointless bureaucratic exercise than ordering that a commercial for a video game released six months ago not be run again, we'd like to hear about it.

Once again, the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority has banned a violent game ad well after the time when the action would have had any hint of relevance. This time around a pair of commercials for Sega's Condemned 2: Bloodshot (release date: March, 2008) have been banned - not that they were likely to be aired again.

As detailed by the ASA's website, nine complaints were received about a pair of Condemned 2 adverts:

The first ad... showed scenes of violence including a man punching another on the floor and blood splattering on the screen as a man was beaten with a club... The second ad... included the same violent scenes and on-screen text but also included further scenes... This time, as the characters fought, noises could be heard which seemed to express pain and the force of their exertions.

As one might expect, Sega Europe argued that Condemned 2 was aimed at a mature audience and that the ads ran later in the evening when less likely to be seen by children. Ultimately the ASA ruled today that:

The ads breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 6.1 (Offence), 6.2 (Violence and cruelty) and 6.4 (Personal distress)... The ads must not be broadcast again in their current form.

GP: In other words: Sega, don't broadcast that commercial that you had no further intention of broadcasting anyway. This is not the first time the ASA has weighed in so pointlessly. As GamePolitics previously reported, the agency banned ads for Kane & Lynch five months after release.