A paid-for Facebook post for carolgames.com's online game Blade of Queen, seen on 3 May 2017, stated Warning! Please make sure your girlfriend is not by your side when playing-- [ Click to start ]. Beneath that was a 3D computer game image of a woman
lying down and facing away from a camera. Text on blue buttons in the bottom left and right corners of the image stated Fondle and Ravage. A complainant, who believed the ad invited consumers to fantasise about committing sexual
assault, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence. ReadMob Technologies (Hong Kong) Ltd t/a carolgames.com did not respond to the ASA's enquiries. ASA
Assessment: Complaint Upheld The ASA was concerned by carolgames.com's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the
ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code. (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in the future. We considered the image of
the woman, who was faced away from the viewer and seemed to be sleeping, implied fondle and ravage were non-consensual actions and therefore referred to acts of sexual assault. The text above the image which stated Warning! Please make sure your
girlfriend is not by your side when playing reinforced the impression that the user's actions were likely to be regarded by others as shameful or immoral. We considered that referring to sexual assault in that manner in an ad for
a video game trivialised and condoned sexual violence, and as such was likely to cause serious and widespread offence. We concluded the ad had not been prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society. The ad
must not appear again in its current form. We told carolgames.com not to trivialise or condone sexual violence in their advertising, to ensure their ads did not cause serious or widespread offence, and to ensure they prepare ads with a sense of
responsibility to consumers and to society. We referred the matter to the CAP's Compliance Team.
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