Advertising regulations exist to keep the consumer
safe. This is why tobacco companies can't advertise near churches
or
schools, why hardcore sex is not appropriate for subway station
billboard, and why MySpace should be kept away from public parks where
hateful children might congregate. But sometimes advertising rules are
a bit too strict and are less about protecting the consumer than
punishing the advertiser. That's basically the case with Wanted, the
Angelina Jolie/James McAvoy assassin flick that already stormed through
the U.S. But it's just hitting in Britain, and ads like this one have
been yanked — because they glorify Dick Cheney's favorite hobby sport:
violence.
Billboard ads for Angelina Jolie
film Wanted have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for
glamorising gun violence।
The
posters for the Hollywood movie featured Jolie and her co-star James
McAvoy holding guns in a variety of positions in a comic book-style
montage of pictures।
One ad featured Jolie
lying on her back across the bonnet of a car, holding a gun next to the
text: "We drove through the night at breathtaking speed, destroying
everything in our path … welcome to the fraternity। We are a team of
assassins, the weapons of fate. Kill one, save a thousand."
The
ASA said the line "Six weeks ago I was just like you … and then I met
her … and my world was changed forever" suggested McAvoy's character's
life had been changed for the better since he had become an assassin।
Not true.
His
life had been changed for the better since Angelina Jolie came along
wearing a wife beater, a sick back tat, and spread her legs in front of
him. There's a diff, Your Majesty.