Shots fired - American gaming TV ads

emnmnme

I picked up on this trend years ago that TV commercials advertising action games never show people being shot. Well, in America at least, as far as I know. Advertisers can show shots being fired offscreen and they can show aiming a weapon at an enemy but showing a bullet leaving a weapon and hitting the target in the same cut is a big no-no. Here are three examples:

http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=2023
http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=6300
http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=701

Lots of bullets flying around but seeing the hero directly shooting someone doesn't happen. But then I saw the latest TV commercial for Frontlines: Fuel of War and they broke this rule. An enemy riding in a tank was blown to smithereens. Is this the first time this has happened?

Shooter Mcgavin

I swear I saw people shooting other people directly in the latest Rainbow Six Vegas 2 commercial.

emnmnme

I was looking for that one but there are two versions of that RSV2 ad - the earlier one I saw had a sniper at the end tag a guy on a balcony but then a week later, it was different. The guy on the balcony still fell but the shooting was cut out.

If anyone can find either version, if there are even two versions and I'm not misremembering, great.

AlienCowThatMoos

I recall years ago I saw a "Making of" segment on the X-Files where the director was talking about this. He said that the FCC allowed them to show people shooting and people getting shot, but not people shooting other people. To get around it they would always show a shot of someone shooting and then a shot of the person reacting to being shot, but never both in the same shot.

Seems like a rather silly rule to me.

falling_stone

AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »

I recall years ago I saw a "Making of" segment on the X-Files where the director was talking about this. He said that the FCC allowed them to show people shooting and people getting shot, but not people shooting other people. To get around it they would always show a shot of someone shooting and then a shot of the person reacting to being shot, but never both in the same shot.

Seems like a rather silly rule to me.

i fairly certain I remember a ghost recon commercial a few years back that showed a tank being blown to smithereens with soldiers next to it...I'll see if I can find it.

EDIT: totally found it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olxxVp8tkiY
See clip 20-24 second. 4 dudes get owned by a grenade launcher.

emnmnme

falling_stone wrote: »

4 dudes get owned by a grenade launcher.

But the grenade didn't hit anyone. It hit the ground and the explosion got those baddies. If the grenade bonked someone in the nose, then we'd have something. But contact wasn't made so it gets a thumbs up from The Standards Dept.

Rook

emnmnme wrote: »

falling_stone wrote: »

4 dudes get owned by a grenade launcher.

But the grenade didn't hit anyone. It hit the ground and the explosion got those baddies. If the grenade bonked someone in the nose, then we'd have something. But contact wasn't made so it gets a thumbs up from The Standards Dept.

Isn't that just a cut of the grenade flying towards someone rather than seeing someone actually shooting the grenade.

Anyways, seems kinda dumb rule but who really cares?

FyreWulff

It is strange, but if you really do compare them, seeing both in the same shot is more graphic.

Mind filling in blanks with jumpcuts works better than spelling it out.

Dartboy

I've noticed this the most in the GTA commercials. Considering how over the top the violence in those games is, I always found it amusing that the commercials went to great lengths to only show the talking cutscenes, shots of cars driving, and maybe an explosion in the background, but they never actually showed any combat other than the main character firing a gun towards the camera.

Dirty

While it does seem silly when you sit and think about it, it really does make sense. The more real that violent footage seems, the more brutal it feels. And the inverse is also true. You already know its fake, but that cutaway is just another reminder of how fake it is.

In live action, this is also helpful from a safety standpoint. When you fire at a target that is off camera, you don't actually have to shoot at an actual person, and that makes it easier to avoid any kind of Brandon Lee type accidents.

emnmnme

This might also be true with knives and swords. Maybe? I haven't looked for a trend but this Ninja Gaiden ad has no decapitations. :P

http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=1183

EDIT: Nevermind. Soul Calibur Legends has the swords making contact with baddies.
http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=6897

Dirty

Well, duh.

Victor15b

Strange that a person taking a bullet is considered too violent, but people being thrown around by explosions isnt.....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mB4Bfqrrw84
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kC2GzK7Aw4c
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mBbg4ldd00A


That mercenaries commmercial has to be my all time fav....

FreddyD

They also aren't allowed to show people drinking in beer commercials, which kind of blew my mind when I first heard about it. I never noticed that they don't actually drink the beer.

Strayth

AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »

Seems like a rather silly rule to me.

Ginger's belly button from Giligan's Island could not be shown intermittently. That is to say she could show it, or hide it, but doing both in succession would anger the FCC. These people build their foundations on silly rules.

And that is funny about the X-Files, never knew that.

AlienCowThatMoos

Strayth wrote: »

Ginger's belly button from Giligan's Island could not be shown intermittently. That is to say she could show it, or hide it, but doing both in succession would anger the FCC. These people build their foundations on silly rules.

And that is funny about the X-Files, never knew that.

It was about an episode from one of the first few seasons. The scene they were talking about was the opening scene where some lab guys are working in a mobile lab on a train, and evil MIBs storm in and shoot everyone. I don't remember anything else about it, but I think Mulder ends up handcuffed to the train with a bomb on board.

emnmnme

Didn't the FCC deem Barbara Eden's bellybutton too hot for TV?

This thread needs that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 commercial, people. It's gotta be somewhere on the internet.

Rook

FreddyD wrote: »

They also aren't allowed to show people drinking in beer commercials, which kind of blew my mind when I first heard about it. I never noticed that they don't actually drink the beer.

To be honest, I just thought that was more to do with most of the beers advertised tasting like ferrit's piss.

SirToasty

I seem to remember an X-Files episode with some crazy Satanist dudes in masks performing some ritual in the woods or something where one of them shoots and kills the other. I feel like it actually showed the shooting and the other man being shot in the same clip but my memory may just be fuzzy.

emnmnme

While you can't fire bullets at enemies in ads, you can fire lightning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Zk36sUVcA&feature=related

This rule must only apply to humanoid-looking enemies.

Sanders

splinter cell -1:32

There is also a scene where he is on the tight rope and shoots people through the glass, but due to it being an early version of the game (which is why the animations seem so unsmooth) you can hardly even tell he is holding a gun.


PS: the Ghost Recon, First Splinter Cell, and Rainbow Six three ads are all so badass.
Here is one for Rainbow Six, here, and the other one I found at the commercial archive site but i'll be damned if I am going to pay to watch a commercial.