Stranglehold TV Ad Banned In UK

Despite receiving only two complaints, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered that a television advert for Midway's Strangehold is not to be broadcast again in its current form due to it "encouraging and condoning violence".

According to the ASA, the television advert showed "a prolonged shoot-out between four men" with a voiceover stating that "Honour is his code. Vengeance is his mission. Violence is his only option. John Woo presents Stranglehold. The next generation of action gaming has arrived". On screen text indicated that the images were "not actual game footage," and prominently displayed an "18" age rating logo at the end of the sequence.

One viewer of the advert complained that the adverts glorified violence and gun crime, saying it was "a dangerous incitement to susceptible people". The second complaint was made by a parent whose three-year-old son had seen the advert and thought it unacceptable for transmission before the 9pm watershed.