False Advertising?

[Your Mom]

Ok so I was watching TV the other day and saw an ad for Shadow the Hedgehog and he is carrying around his big gun and talking about how he was going to blast stuff. Fine whatever right?

Now fast forward to this morning sitting with my daughter watching some Pokemon. They played a very similar Shadow commercial. But this time he had no gun and there was no mention that he would ever be using one in said game.

Now I know this is of no concern to any of us posting here, but what about parents who dont want their kids playing games with gunplay and such? Is Sega trying to fool them into thinking this is just the good old Sonic?

Could some sue happy parent cause Sega trouble?

[Benji]

Ok so I was watching TV the other day and saw an ad for Shadow the Hedgehog and he is carrying around his big gun and talking about how he was going to blast stuff. Fine whatever right?

Now fast forward to this morning sitting with my daughter watching some Pokemon. They played a very similar Shadow commercial. But this time he had no gun and there was no mention that he would ever be using one in said game.

Now I know this is of no concern to any of us posting here, but what about parents who dont want their kids playing games with gunplay and such? Is Sega trying to fool them into thinking this is just the good old Sonic?

Could some sue happy parent cause Sega trouble?

You're from a country where people sued McDonalds for their own idiocy of consuming fries and burgers, of course they could sue

I don't think it's so much them trying to fool people more the time slot, you can't really put guns on an early morning show, it's innapropriate, besides, parents should really make sure they know what their kids are playing anyway, you can't blame computer companies for your own ignorance and lack of protection of your childrens state of mind.

[stokeriño]

I don't think so. I've seen GTA adverts which contained little more than driving/walking/helicoptering around, rather than gunfights or any of the more questionable material, so I'd assume there's no legal problem with that sort of thing.

They probably assume people will at least read the back of the game case before buying it, or something. ¬_¬

Edited November 12, 2005 by stokeriño

[Cole]

If I recall correctly, in the latest Sonic game you can choose to be a bad Sonic or a good Sonic so maybe you saw the bad one with the gun one day and then a commercial for the good side the next?

Dunno...

[triplexpac]

There's a whole lot of rules for advertising to children. Gun use may be one of them, so since the ad was running during a program intended for children, they're not allowed to show the gun.

When you saw the gun ad, was it during a program meant for kids or no?

[Benji]

I don't think it's so much them trying to fool people more the time slot, you can't really put guns on an early morning show, it's innapropriate, besides, parents should really make sure they know what their kids are playing anyway, you can't blame computer companies for your own ignorance and lack of protection of your childrens state of mind.

There's a whole lot of rules for advertising to children. Gun use may be one of them, so since the ad was running during a program intended for children, they're not allowed to show the gun.

When you saw the gun ad, was it during a program meant for kids or no?

I love when people state the same thing twice

[Guest muddatrucker]

Its definitely not false advertising, seems fair enough to me.

[Your Mom]

Yeah I saw the gun one during primetime so that could be different. It was so weird though because he was walking the same way he did when he was holding the gun so I guess they just erased the gun.

[IAceI]

If I recall correctly, in the latest Sonic game you can choose to be a bad Sonic or a good Sonic so maybe you saw the bad one with the gun one day and then a commercial for the good side the next?

Dunno...

[Guest The Trooper]

Remember Crazy frog and the penis

they easily managed to edit that out

[Lint]

Might have a gun, but according to the ESRB website..

Shadow the Hedgehog Sega of America Inc. GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox Everyone 10+ Fantasy Violence, Mild Language

so it might be a gun, but Robotnic is still the enemy. So the gun might just be used to simply disable the robots, thus no killing

Edited November 15, 2005 by Lint6

[Pepsi]

Might have a gun, but according to the ESRB website..

Shadow the Hedgehog Sega of America Inc. GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox Everyone 10+ Fantasy Violence, Mild Language

so it might be a gun, but Robotnic is still the enemy. So the gun might just be used to simply disable the robots, thus no killing

[SeanDMan]

Robots are people too.

[IAceI]

Might have a gun, but according to the ESRB website..

Shadow the Hedgehog Sega of America Inc. GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox Everyone 10+ Fantasy Violence, Mild Language

so it might be a gun, but Robotnic is still the enemy. So the gun might just be used to simply disable the robots, thus no killing

[The Kraig]

American TV bans the visual images of guns being use to kill things. So for example, a massive rocket launcher used to blow up a vacant highway/robot/alien/whatever should be fine. Shooting Sonic (I've seen the ad) would not be allowed I don't think.

An episode of Pokemon was banned in America because it had a handgun in it, and it was pointed at people (yes, even the annoying one in the hat). Even though they have some sort of mechanical monster attack them every episode with rockets and cages and weapons of war like that (never used properly of course).

In other news, I hear Shadow The Hedgehog is a load of shit unless you're actually under 10 year of age. Ironic really.

[Ananas]

Ok so I was watching TV the other day and saw an ad for Shadow the Hedgehog and he is carrying around his big gun and talking about how he was going to blast stuff. Fine whatever right?

Now fast forward to this morning sitting with my daughter watching some Pokemon. They played a very similar Shadow commercial. But this time he had no gun and there was no mention that he would ever be using one in said game.

Now I know this is of no concern to any of us posting here, but what about parents who dont want their kids playing games with gunplay and such? Is Sega trying to fool them into thinking this is just the good old Sonic?

Could some sue happy parent cause Sega trouble?

You're from a country where people sued McDonalds for their own idiocy of consuming fries and burgers, of course they could sue

I don't think it's so much them trying to fool people more the time slot, you can't really put guns on an early morning show, it's innapropriate, besides, parents should really make sure they know what their kids are playing anyway, you can't blame computer companies for your own ignorance and lack of protection of your childrens state of mind.

[Benji]

If you can't put guns in an ad that airs during a kids television show then why advertise the game in the first place? Those restrictions are making a pretty clear statement that games of that nature are innapropriate to children within that target demographic, and should some sue-happy mother or father mistakingly by his or her child(ren) that specific game based on the ads, I'd think they'd have legal precedence to go after Sega about it. Plenty of less plausible lawsuits have been won in America, and if they were to get the right judge, it'd probably be a slam dunk case.

Because at the end of the day games are generally targetted at kids, the main demographic of most video games is 13 and below. I'm not sure on the rating for Shadow but I doubt it's got a rating nulling that demographic.

[Farmer Reil]

I'm not sure on the rating for Shadow

Edited November 23, 2005 by TheReilDeal

[Colly]

This reminds me of the shoddyness of my Steve Buscemi Resorvoir Dogs action figure (Its not a doll!!!). All the others have guns, but the damn Boosh has a suitcase. On the back of the box, weapon not included at actors request! Damn you!

[Benji]

I'm not sure on the rating for Shadow

Even though someone just posted it, and highlighted the rating in bold no less?

That was a comment from, like, a week before I said it, it's hardly on my 'essentials to remember for survival list is it?

Edited November 28, 2005 by Benjirino~!