While I agree with your response this bit is a little niaive. Carling don’t throw a strop because funnily enough, if you drink enough of it and then drive, you will probably kill/injure someone if not, yourself.

The difference is that while drink driving adds have scientifically proven that alcohol is bad for you in large doses/constant use, there is no real evidence that games are bad for you or cause obesity.

As a dedicated gamer myself I think the games industry will always be a scapegoat for violence and health because it is the easy target – due to a generational transition born out of misundertanding, a lot of parents will believe everything they see by misinformative government supported adds. That is why this ad is wrong.

The games industry and gamers of all ages should not only stand up against this injustice but also promote the huge benfits that games bring to our development, lives and society in general and promote a mind set where we stop avoiding the real issues and problem with society and actually deal with the underlying problems of obesity/violence/mental health.

Happy Gaming all.

On point 3, I think it’s a tricky question. On the one hand, I would agree that targeting games over TV or literature is a lazy and vindictive move, and we as an industry need to defend our interests. No question.

On the other hand, it’s an ad agency’s (and the charities’) job to hit hard with their message, and this seems an extremely effective way to do that. When you see a drink driving ad and the guy’s downing pints of lager, you don’t see Carling throwing a strop. Short of using no example pastime at all (ineffective) or pointing the finger at every sedentary pastime out there (impossible), someone was going to get the brunt of the accusation.

As it happened, we did.

I support MCV and the games industry on this because it’s in our interests to fight back. I can’t say, though, that I’m entirely convinced the ad is doing anything wrong.