Chicago pulling GTA IV ads

Just saw this on GameSpot.com. This stuff really annoys me. Yes, an advertisement is making people shoot each other. Give me a break.

New York City politicians were decidedly unhappy when they first found out Grand Theft Auto IV’s Liberty City setting was a thinly veiled take on the Big Apple, but with a week to go before the game’s release, the biggest gripe about the game is rising out of Chicago. The local Fox affiliate is reporting that the Chicago Transit Authority plans to pull an advertising campaign for the latest criminal action game from Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive.

The Fox report–available as a video clip on the station’s Web site–begins by noting this past weekend was “an especially violent” one for Chicago, which left dozens of people shot and six dead.

“And what did we spot on CTA buses and platforms,” anchor Andy Roesgen asked. “Advertisements for the unapologetically violent video game Grand Theft Auto.”

Roesgen then recaps a 2004 stir over CTA ads for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the PlayStation 2. In that incident, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (whose game restriction legislation was declared unconstitutional, much to the expense of the state’s taxpayers) criticized the CTA for accepting the $90,000 ad campaign, but the ads were set to come down anyway by the time the issue drew attention.

The Fox report cited a CTA representative as saying that transit authority president Ron Huberman had decided to pull the advertising campaign. Neither Take-Two Interactive nor the CTA had returned GameSpot’s requests for comment as of press time.

Via GameSpot.com



Around The Net:


  • Violet

    But won’t you think of the CHYYYYLDREN!!1!? *sobs*

    /sarcasm

  • http://fadecy.deviantart.com fadecy

    dude this is a nintendo site. This doesn’t really have a place here.

  • PrarieD0G

    Notice: “a FOX report”

    Fox News for the win. Heh, they are going to be the most hated industry of all time by gamers.

  • http://www.attackofthepowerbrick.com Tony

    It does have a place here if you care about video games at all and their acceptance in mainstream culture. I hate when people say stuff like that. It’s not like this post is about how fun GTAIV is or isn’t, it’s about society’s reception to games in general.

    Anyway, I live in Chicago and this was on a few stations over the past week (I was writing something up for my site about it too). It’s funny because they did a good job making it seem like the exact same banned ads were on the CTA again… not a slew of new, fully approved ones.

    It’s true there’s been quite a bit of violence here as of late. It’s been especially bad around schools for whatever reason, but that’s been going on all year now. We’re already almost in May. Is a April 29th release of GTAIV somehow going to add to it? No, of course not. But I could see how some people might find it slightly insensitive.

    On the same token, these are people who would find anything insensitive. The odd thing about this is that there’s no shortage of advertisements for violent (or even sexually themed) R-rated films on the CTA. The only real difference I can think of is the continued concept by older people (who are largely in charge here) that only 13 year olds play video games.

  • http://www.attackofthepowerbrick.com Tony

    Oh, specifically this past weekend there were 29 shootings and 9 murders in Chicago. http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6357959&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.3.1

  • scullum2001

    I just saw an advertisement for GTA4 on a bus stop in Chicago yesterday (4/23).