Ad description
An in-game ad for the mobile game Hotel Merge Empire, seen in the Block Puzzle mobile app on 19 February, showed a woman holding a baby while standing on a porch. She was surrounded by a man, a younger woman and an older woman. The man pointed to her and said “NOW”, while the younger woman pushed her down the stairs. The older woman then forcibly took the baby from the woman’s arms, as she was shown saying “NO!”. The woman walked back up to the porch and was then kicked back down the stairs again by the man.
Issue
The complainant, who believed that the ad trivialised and condoned domestic violence, challenged whether the ad was offensive and irresponsible.
Response
GreenPixel Ltd t/a Hotel Merge Empire said that they did not intend to cause offence and took their responsibility to adhere to the CAP Code seriously. The ad was part of a test campaign, which they said was shown to only a small number of users. However, they understood the importance of compliance, regardless of scale. They said that they placed age-targeting measures in all their ad campaigns to ensure that their content was only viewed by mature audiences.
The animated, cartoonish style of the ad was consistent with the visual identity of their game. They believed that style was integral to their brand, and its use in the ad was intended to ensure visual design consistency, rather than to trivialise serious issues.
They said the storyline shown in the ad did not depict domestic violence because the woman shown in the storyline was not the child’s mother or a member of the family. Instead, the woman was portrayed as the child’s nanny, who had failed to meet the expected standards of care for her role. The father’s aggression was driven by his fear that she might attempt to take the child and reflected an exaggerated response in the context of the narrative. They highlighted that the story concluded with the child returning unharmed to a loving family, which they believed reinforced that lasting harm did not occur. They confirmed that the ad had been withdrawn, and that it, along with similar creatives, would not be used in future.
Big Cake Group Ltd, the creator of the Block Puzzle game in which ad had appeared, said that they were unable to identify which network served the ad. This was because they worked with several ad networks who sold their inventory using a bidding model. They did however provide a list of all of the ad networks that they used.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code required marketers to avoid causing serious or widespread offence and to ensure advertising was prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. It further stated that marketing communications must contain nothing that was likely to condone or encourage violence.
The ad showed a woman being pushed down the stairs, outside a home, by another woman, while holding a baby. After being pushed, the woman was then shown having the baby forcibly taken from her and appeared visibly distressed as she shouted “NO”. In her attempt to take the baby back, she was kicked down the stairs for a second time by a man, who was depicted in an angry and aggressive manner. We considered that consumers would understand that the woman and baby had been physically assaulted.
We considered there was nothing in the ad to indicate that the woman was the baby’s nanny, and we further considered consumers would likely assume that the woman was the baby’s mother, because of her visible distress after the baby was taken from her care. On that basis, we considered that some consumers would understand that the woman was, or had previously been in, a relationship with the male character. Irrespective of the nature of the relationships between the characters, we considered the violence depicted in the ad was unacceptable.
Furthermore, the ad featured bright colours and a cartoonish animation style which we considered gave the ad a playful and light-hearted tone. We considered that the ad appeared to present portrayals of assault with the purpose of entertaining viewers and made light of violence.
We considered that the ad, in portraying assault in that way, had the effect of condoning violence, including domestic violence, and furthermore, was irresponsible and likely to cause serious and widespread offence, particularly in the context of an ad for a mobile app game.
On that basis, we concluded that the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 1.3 (Social responsibility), 4.1 and 4.4 (Harm and offence).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told GreenPixel Ltd t/a Hotel Merge Empire to ensure that their ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious or widespread offence, including by trivialising, condoning or encouraging domestic violence.
