Fallout 3 ads: Over the line or not?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:23:03 -0400

Bethesda Softworks is coming under fire this week for an ad in Washington, D.C.'s Metro Station as well as other public transportation locations for the latest installment in its Fallout game series, released today. The advertisement features an image of a damaged Washington Monument and tattered American flags.

AdFreak notes that the ads are protected under the First Amendment, and are merely depictions of a video game from a studio that is obviously trying to be provacative. And Bethesda's executive producer Todd Howard tells the Washington Post:

"And so, just the immediate visual of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and things like that, they tell a story immediately. The imagery is really evocative, these American icons, these big, epic structures kind of destroyed. It has the feeling of, what would you do? How did it get that way and what would you do in that world?"

What the Fallout 3 ad campaign seems to have ignored or dismissed in its campaign, however, is that Washington, D.C. was the target of a terrorist attack recently enough that the visual may not be viewed as a simple ad by many of the D.C. area's commuters. While the violence of first-person shooter games is occasionally debated, the decision to move the game's new version to D.C., turning the nation's capital into a post-apocalyptic wasteland may not garner the "cool game" reaction that Bethesda was planning.

Fallout 3 ads: Over the line or not?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:23:03 -0400

"And so, just the immediate visual of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and things like that, they tell a story immediately. The imagery is really evocative, these American icons, these big, epic structures kind of destroyed. It has the feeling of, what would you do? How did it get that way and what would you do in that world?"

Fallout 3 ads: Over the line or not?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:23:03 -0400

"And so, just the immediate visual of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and things like that, they tell a story immediately. The imagery is really evocative, these American icons, these big, epic structures kind of destroyed. It has the feeling of, what would you do? How did it get that way and what would you do in that world?"

Fallout 3 ads: Over the line or not?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:23:03 -0400

"And so, just the immediate visual of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and things like that, they tell a story immediately. The imagery is really evocative, these American icons, these big, epic structures kind of destroyed. It has the feeling of, what would you do? How did it get that way and what would you do in that world?"

Fallout 3 ads: Over the line or not?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:23:03 -0400

"And so, just the immediate visual of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and things like that, they tell a story immediately. The imagery is really evocative, these American icons, these big, epic structures kind of destroyed. It has the feeling of, what would you do? How did it get that way and what would you do in that world?"

Fallout 3 ads: Over the line or not?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:23:03 -0400

"And so, just the immediate visual of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and things like that, they tell a story immediately. The imagery is really evocative, these American icons, these big, epic structures kind of destroyed. It has the feeling of, what would you do? How did it get that way and what would you do in that world?"

Fallout 3 ads: Over the line or not?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:23:03 -0400

"And so, just the immediate visual of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and things like that, they tell a story immediately. The imagery is really evocative, these American icons, these big, epic structures kind of destroyed. It has the feeling of, what would you do? How did it get that way and what would you do in that world?"