• Change4Libel?

    03/06/2009

    Posted in: Gaming, Industry

    The UK’s recently launched Change4Life campaign is going straight for video game vilification.

    Change4Life Ad

    Change4Life?

    The new print ad ties childhood gaming to a shortened lifespan, a bold follow-up to the television version that links video games to obesity.

    MCV and ELSPA have, rightly, decided to point out just how harmful these sweeping, defamatory assertions are.

    MCV complained on the grounds that the ad was ‘unrepresentative of the positive effect video games have on the UK’s youth’.

    [MCV] continued: ‘The advert implies to its audience (parents) that, by preventing their child from playing games, they will help ensure their future health. Not only is this strictly not true, but runs the genuine risk of hurting small businesses.’

    ELSPA director general Michael Rawlinson told MCV:

    “When we became aware of the adverts we were surprised as they contradicted much of the discussion that we had enjoyed with the Department of Health. We immediately called for an urgent meeting with its officials responsible for Change4Life.

    “Following that meeting we have been informed that the ads are the responsibility of the NGOs listed. We are now taking the matter up with these organisations and informing them of the responsible position taken by the industry as demonstrated on our Ask About Games website.”

    A sedentary lifestyle of any kind will certainly lead to myriad health woes, however I can’t say that I’ve seen print ads decrying the correlation between clerical work and fat secretaries. Of course, they need them to run the ad copy.

    Change4Life’s tactics are consistent with plenty of other campaigns for what-have-you’s – that is, spurious with a dash of loony (*cough* sea kittens *cough*) – and certainly effective at fueling a fire under the already ignited support base, but I am unconvinced they do much for what must be their target demographic: the middle ground dwellers. Those indifferent to the inconvenient don’t tend to hoist the revolutionary flag, and in spite of all of Change4Life’s sheep-herding tactics a culture with a fondness for media will remain and libelous claims may undermine genuine concern for public health.

    MCV’s counter that the ads may harm small businesses is a critical point, and a keen way of shifting the focus back to most large agencies favorite topic of all: the bottom dollar. That the casualties of a smear campaign are the little guy, the everyman, that’s just not good PR for any of the organizations associated with Change4Life (Cancer Research, The British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK). I expect ELSPA’s call to take responsibility for this misstep to resound most with these groups, and their pocketbooks.

    However, Change4Life’s promise of “live longer” is a tempting one – quit videogames, and find the Fountain of Youth? Nah…

    • Recent Comments

    • snoop_dizzle said...

      1

      Gee what will they come up with next? :O

      03/7/09 1:46 PM | Comment Link

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