Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Ad Banned in UK for "Trivializing Sexual Violence"
- Sagar Mankar
- 10 minutes ago
- 2 min read
A Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 advertisement has been banned in the UK after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled it "trivialized sexual violence."
The commercial, which aired on YouTube and video-on-demand (VOD) services last November, featured comedian Nikki Glazer and actor Peter Stormare as replacement airport security officers.
The ad was part of a larger campaign built around the concept that various workers had been replaced because they were too busy playing the new Call of Duty game. In this particular spot, the humor centered on an airport security checkpoint scenario.
The advertisement showed a male passenger being told he had been "randomly selected to be manhandled" before being ordered to strip down to everything but his shoes. The female officer, played by Glazer, then put on gloves and declared, "time for the puppet show." A post-credit scene featured the male officer telling the passenger to "bite down on this, she's going in dry."
The regulatory body received 11 complaints in total about the commercial. Nine viewers believed the ad "trivialized sexual violence" and challenged whether it was "irresponsible and offensive." Two additional complaints questioned whether the ad encouraged drug use.
Activision Blizzard UK defended the advertisement during the investigation. The company argued it depicted a "deliberately implausible and parodic scenario that bore no resemblance to actual airport security procedures." They insisted the "ad did not sexualize the act of performing searches and contained no implication that the acts were sexual in nature."
The publisher also pointed out that the commercial had been reviewed by Clearcast, which pre-approves British TV advertising. It received an "ex-kids" timing restriction, meaning it could not be broadcast during or around children's programming.
Despite these defenses, the ASA found "the humor was generated by the humiliation and implied threat of painful, non-consensual penetration of the man." The regulator concluded this approach "trivialized sexual violence," making the ad "irresponsible and offensive."
As reported by BBC News, the watchdog ruled the commercial must not appear again in its current form.
The ASA did not uphold the drug use complaints. They determined the ad was "unlikely to be understood as encouraging or condoning such behavior."
Activision Blizzard UK has been instructed to ensure future ads are "socially responsible" and do not cause serious offence. At the time of writing, the airport security spot remains viewable on the official Call of Duty YouTube channel.
This isn't the first time a Call of Duty advertisement has faced regulatory action. In 2012, an advert for Modern Warfare 3 showing armed men firing at a lorry received a daytime ban from the ASA for scenes of violence and destruction deemed inappropriate for young children.
This controversy comes at a challenging time for Black Ops 7. The game has underperformed in sales amid strong competition from shooters like Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders, as reflected in European sales figures. Following the release, Activision announced significant changes to the Call of Duty franchise, including a promise not to release back-to-back games in the same sub-brand again.