Tag Archives: change4life

UK “stop being fat” initiative Change4Life’s released a new ad designed to get people up and moving, this time showing a dance-mat game as a positive thing to be doing. Watch it here.

The original ad was blasted by the British games industry for showing a kid sat in a chair with a controller saying he was risking death by “doing nothing”.

Best buy a dance-mat, hey.

Stereotypes still plague the gaming industry, and SCEE has said it feels that the new Change4Life ads help feed such negative reactions to gamers as a whole.

Speaking with MCV, UK managing director Ray Maguire explained his initial reaction to these adverts.

“I must admit that when I first saw the Change4Life ‘PlayStation’ ad I felt exactly the same way as everyone else”, he said. “How could this happen? How could the Department of Health and the charities, the ad agency, all get this so wrong?

“It was sloppy marketing to say the least and typical of what we have come to expect from certain quarters when it comes to our stereotype.”

Maguire said he thinks that marketing departments will do what ever they can to get their point across.

“Clearly, the ad targeted many people’s paranoia, the kind that is often amplified by media such as the Daily Mail,” he said.

“But anyone who knows anything about games, which is half the population these days, will have immediately dismissed the ad as irrelevant. The other half, who don’t play games, would have immediately accepted the stereotype.

“The industry has changed more in the past five years than in the previous 15, but the general public’s image of this industry has hardly changed at all.”

More of the interview through here.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has dismissed complaints made against a government ad campaign which promotes exercise by showing a child holding a gaming controller.

But Tiga and MCV lodged complaints against the Change4Life image, which they claimed suggested the government was linking early death to playing videogames.

“Whilst the ASA Council understood the concerns of Tiga and those complainants who worked in the videogames industry, it noted that the ad did not claim that playing computer or console games alone would lead to illness or premature death,” wrote the agency.

“The Council considered that most readers would understand that the ad was discouraging a sedentary lifestyle and used the example of playing a console game as an illustration of the type of behaviour which might lead to long-term health problems if no exercise were taken alongside more sedentary activities.

“The Council considered it unlikely that most readers would infer from the ad that playing videogames was the sole contributory factor in the development of the health problems mentioned in the ad.”

More on GI.

According to this MCV piece, Sony is considering suing over the use of a PlayStation controller in the “early death” Change4Life ad.

From the piece:

A source close to Sony revealed to MCV that the agency behind the ad, The Gate, had not contacted the platform holder to ask about using a controller that bears a close likeness to PlayStation’s pad.

The ad, part of a government campaign to get kids to be more active, showed a child sat on a sofa holding what looks to be a DualShock beside the words, “Risk an early death. Just do nothing”.

The UK Government’s Change4Life campaign has joined forces with the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Cancer Research, and is placing ads with TV and print media linking games with premature death.

The campaign’s newest ad has appeared in woman’s magazines Heat, Reveal and Star, and depicts a young gamer risking death by “doing nothing”.

Change4Life TV ads started hitting the airwaves this year, and this new bit of print advertising has caused MCV to file a complaint with the ASA.

MCV says the ad’s, “Unrepresentative of the positive effect video games have on the UK’s youth.”

“The advert implies to its audience (parents) that, by preventing their child from playing games, they will help ensure their future health,” said the British publication.

“Not only is this strictly not true, but runs the genuine risk of hurting small businesses.”

Hit the links for more info and to take a gander at the offending ad.