N-Gage ads banned

Adverts for the latest gadget from a mobile phone manufacturer were today banned after complaints they were "offensive and distressing" and condoned violence.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 12 complaints about posters, newspaper adverts and a cinema commercial for Nokia's new combined phone and handheld games console, called N-Gage.

One poster featured an alleyway at night and the words: "This is where I took on three guys ... and made them cry like babies."

Another showed a photograph of a changing room with lockers and the text: "This is where I made Kev look small."

A third poster, which also appeared as a newspaper advert, had a photograph of an isolated caravan in front of line of tall pine trees and the words: "This is where I left Kate, Lucy and Michelle begging for more."

Nokia told the ASA it had chosen locations which might be unusual in which to play video games and that the wording was "typical of language used in any competitive environment".

News source: Manchester Online