12 Aug, 2010
The promotional campaign trailer for new title Kane and Lynch: Dog Days has been deemed too violent for British television. The sequel to ‘Kane and Lynch’ being developed by IO Interactive, currently owned by Square Enix, has revised the ad campaign down to a 10 second teaser trailer, from the original 1:30 running time which depicted the title characters gunning their way through a small army of police officers with an artilery range that would make the NRA blush. The 10 second promo now features simple block text, before giving simple information on pricing at UK retailer GAME. It seemed to me that it was maybe going for a ‘A Clockwork Orange’ style simplistic marketing approach. Marketing manager Joe Brooke spoke out about the decision, saying:
“We’ve worked very closely with the UK TV advertising regulatory body to ensure our TV ad is suitable for broadcast after 9pm.”
“After much editing and many submissions we now have a ten-second version which begins airing tomorrow – we hope you enjoy it.”
Given the current political climate in Britain, it is likely that the decision to revise the material comes in the wake of incidents such as the recent shootings of police officers Pc David Rathband, and earlier than that Constable Sharon Beshenivsky. It is safe to say the topic of violence against law enforcement is an especially sensitive subject and it would be so easy for the trailer to be perceived as poor taste advertising. However considering that the material was set for broadcast after the 9pm watershed it leaves me feeling somewhat uncertain about the move.
So what do you the readers make of this? An overreaction, or a sensible and mature move? I have included both trailers for your viewing pleasure, and for you to draw your own conclusions. Check out Steve Wood’s first impressions of Kane and Lynch 2′s demo here!
Original Uncensored trailer and the replacement 10 second UK trailer.
Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days will be released on August 20th for XBox 360, PS3 and PC.
I find it pretty funny that the trailer is deemed too violent. On the contrary, reviews of leaked copies of the game state that swearing and gore have been censored ingame.
That is interesting to know, has that been a decision made by the classification bodies, or part of the game itself?