Dead Island TV ad banned

The Dead Island: Riptide ad has been pulled in Australia.

The ad received a number of complaints over the depiction of suicide, says the Australian Advertising Standards Board. The ad shows a couple in a crashed boat, surrounded by zombies, who then blow up the boat with them inside. (You can watch it below).

Dead Island distributor AIE hit back at the decision, as reported by Kotaku.

"The cinematic implication of violence in the ad is intended to convey the desolate terror afflicting the game characters," The firm said in statement read.

"It conveys the hopelessness of the games’ characters as they are faced with the overwhelming horror and violence of vast numbers of zombies hunting them, without actually depicting the violence of zombie vs character interaction in the game."

But the advertising folks didn’t buy it.

"The Board noted the fantasy content and the stylised nature of the advertisement and considered that the issue of suicide is a depiction of violence which is not justifiable even in the context of an advertisement for a computer game aimed at adults.

"The issue of suicide is a very significant community concern and considered that the use of images which are strongly suggestive of suicide is not appropriate in the context of a television advertisement for a computer game."

Here is that offending ad: