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Games in the same league as smoking? Anti-gaming print ad appears!

March 06, 2009 in Industry News comments 30

The government is always bombarding people with ads to quit smoking, binge drinking or other anti social behaviors, but could videogames soon join them? A print ad has appeared in woman lifestyle magazines Star, Reveal and Heat with the slogan "Risk an early death, just do nothing" with the picture of a boy sitting on a couch with a Playstation controller in hand. This is part of the Government’s Change4Life campaign linking videogames with premature death and has already led to several complaints.

The Government’s Change4Life campaign upped the ante in drawing spurious links between games and premature death this week.

The British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Cancer Research have all lent their name to a new print campaign (pictured here), which shows a gamer risking an early grave by ‘doing nothing’. It has appeared in women’s lifestyle press titles such as Star, Reveal and Heat.
Bale Fire via mcvuk.com »
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Most recently commented on by on Mar 11, 2009

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  • 1
    Hunskelper Mar 6, 09
    This is obviously MicroSoft propaganda!
  • 0
    Slumpy monkey Mar 6, 09
    This is utterly stupid. It took ages for the govermetn to do some thing about smoking, they only lightly do this with alchohol and after one report they print this ad?

    Wtf is up with that, get some good amount evidence before hand.
  • 1
    Seeker X Mar 6, 09
    quote
    Any initiative that encourages people to move towards a healthier lifestyle can only be a good thing. But this is just another example of naive stereotyping and scapegoating. Video games can be a part of an active and healthy lifestyle for everyone of all ages.
    That being said, this is about as (un)successful as trying to link porn to rape, best of luck with that.
  • 0
    Big A2 Mar 6, 09
    "Risk an early death, just entertain yourself."
  • 0
    Murray3 Mar 6, 09
    Well, the government has always listened just to the evidence that suits it best.

    They just want to look like they're doing something and villainizing videogames is a very popular sport.
  • 2
    Duality_18 Mar 6, 09
    Yes, lets not spend money on useful things like healthcare and other beneficial functions of society, instead lets make ads so people can stop playing video games.
  • 2
    Zero and X Mar 7, 09
    Well excuse the *bleep* out of us if we want to do something that we genuinely enjoy doing so we can relieve stress.
    • 0
      Murray3 Mar 7, 09
      For some of us, Gaming is the only thing we genuinely enjoy doing, other than writing, gaming is my only hobby.

      Gaming does more than releive stress, at my primary school, 95% (not exaggerated) of non-gamers didn't learn to read until their final years, all gamers topped their classes, I started gaming at three, was reading and doing times tables at 4 and doing work 2 years above my own for the rest of my primary school years... Which caused me to become lazy and when I got to a private secondary school I stayed lazy and started getting poor marks... And it's not just me having a good brain from my parents, my brother has trouble reading and doing maths and he rarely games at all.
      • 0
        Zero and X Mar 7, 09
        I am not going to argue that gaming makes you smarter, or more articulate because I try to avoid grouping, what I WILL argue is the fact that trying to take away games is taking away one of rights for a false "security" and I am completely against ANY form of rejection of any rights
  • 0
    HisServant77 Mar 7, 09
    Wow, we see yet another fury of gamers who automatically jump to defend their beloved games from any attack whatsoever.

    I kinda agree, kids need to be out doing things and being active. Gaming can indeed be very addicting and many people get addicted to it. It's fine in moderation just like so many other things, so why is it wrong to try to prevent kids from becoming couch potatos?
    • 1
      Seeker X Mar 7, 09
      They've actually been trying to do studies trying to link video games with obesity, this isn't just about health ads, this is pure scapegoating.

      quote
      Any initiative that encourages people to move towards a healthier lifestyle can only be a good thing. But this is just another example of naive stereotyping and scapegoating. Video games can be a part of an active and healthy lifestyle for everyone of all ages.
      • 0
        HisServant77 Mar 7, 09
        Well I agree that if you blame video games as the health risk alone, then yeah they need to say something like addiction to video games, or abundance of video games. It does happen a lot that kids play video games and want to sit and do nothing, and become inactive. I'm against the inactive and say kids need to be active.
        • 1
          Seeker X Mar 7, 09
          Of course they're not going to point at video games and call it the sole cause but they're going to attempt to paint video gaming a much bigger factor (if it even IS a factor) than anything else. They've already done it before with the school shootings anyways, what's stopping them with this?
  • 1
    Tiger of Wu Mar 7, 09
    Good.

    When they started their anti-smoking stuff, how many people quit smoking? Not a lot. And, in the long-term, smoking actually CAN be bad for you. Now they're doing this one of two things will happen; people will either tell them how stupid they're being and they will be one step further to going after the actual issues instead of their constant 'blame everything but the problem' shit or people will ignore them until they just give up.

    I'm glad that they're finally being so open about this instead of just hinting at it like scared dogs; even if they're spreading bullshit at least now they can be called out on it by people who actually know what they're talking about.
  • 0
    Blaze Mar 7, 09
    We're not all sad people that kill our parents because of Halo, or have seizures not coming off of WoW.
    • 0
      Smiffers* Mar 7, 09
      or get diseases from holding the controller for too long.
    • 5
      Tiger of Wu Mar 7, 09
      or still like Sonic
      • 0
        Blaze Mar 9, 09
        Just stop stalking me, do nothing.
        • 0
          HisServant77 Mar 9, 09
          Haha, Blaze don't worry, I still like Sonic too. Of course, I never really got much of a chance to play the original games

          So I'm kinda trying to make up for it by playing the new ones. I try to make the best out of them.
        • 0
          Tiger of Wu Mar 10, 09
          I'm not stalking you, you just happen to be commenting on some of the same articles I look at. If I was stalking you, you'd damn sure know about it, so for both of our sakes don't tempt me, because it wouldn't be pretty for either of us.
        • 0
          HisServant77 Mar 10, 09
          Aw come on, Tiger, you know stalking can be quite fun
        • 0
          Tiger of Wu Mar 10, 09
          I never said it wasn't fun

          I'm just not stalking this particular person... yet
  • 0
    Mazda Mar 8, 09
    heh i find it amusing that playing a video game burns more calories than reading a book, so just imagin the out cry there would be if instead of that kid holding a video game controller he was reading harry potter.
  • 0
    GaMeR BoY Mar 8, 09
    There are much more bigger concerns, as if a kid who saw that will stop playing video game and anyway most people who play video games also exercise, I'm guessing?
    • 0
      black doom Mar 8, 09
      Excerise? I try not to, but sometimes I can't help it.
      • 0
        GaMeR BoY Mar 10, 09
        quote black doom
        Excerise? I try not to, but sometimes I can't help it.
        LOL
  • 0
    Euphoric Mar 9, 09
    The answer is Wii Fit. I mean what body builder doesn't play it?
    • 0
      Big A2 Mar 10, 09
      The ones who are so strong they crush the Wii Remote with the bare hands trying to press A.
      • 0
        Tiger of Wu Mar 11, 09
        So you saw me doing that then
      • 0
        Euphoric Mar 11, 09
        They make special titanium controllers on request.

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