Advertising standards officials have dismissed a complaint about a Diablo 4 “Welcome to Hell” billboard displayed in Melbourne.
The unnamed complainant contacted the Australian Ad Standards Community Panel to say the billboard “brought back memories of the hell of the two years of lockdowns in Melbourne”.
The person also accused the advert of causing offense to Christians and Catholics, and “promoting evil and satanic paraphernalia”.
lol someone complained to Ad Standards that the Diablo ad reminded them of lockdown?? pic.twitter.com/osqdpLYcms
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) July 4, 2023
“The words ‘welcome to Hell Melbourne’ as part of the advertisement for this game and a picture of a devil are offensive to me as a Christian,” reads the complaint.
“The imagery is also inappropriate for my children to see and has already given them nightmares. The imagery is frightening to children as the demonic looking character is staring at the camera, creating the effect of staring at the observer. It is located in an prominent position beside a busy freeway where children have a clear view of the very large Billboard.
“I feel it’s inappropriate to show such disgusting and disturbing content on a billboard where children are seeing this on a daily basis. It has no context and for an adult of 43, I found it unsettling.
“It’s scary for young children who see it, but even as an adult it brought back memories of the hell of the two years of lockdowns in Melbourne. The language and words used are not necessary to get across the message about the release of this game.”
As you’d expect, the Ad Standards Community Panel dismissed the complaint, in hilarious fashion.
On the point about religion, the Panel pointed to the comma between “hell” and “Melbourne”, stressing the ad is not saying the city itself is hell. Never forget the important of a well-placed comma!
Does the ad contain violence? The panel didn’t think so. It compared the image of Lilith, Diablo 4’s antagonist, to Disney’s Maleficent and even noted a Melbourne Australian rules football club nicknamed The Demons.
It’s yet another odd Diablo 4 story among a raft of weird and wonderful reports about Blizzard’s action role-playing game. IGN recently covered the Diablo 4 players who convinced themselves rats lead to better loot, and the community-wide hunt for a secret cow level Blizzard insists does not exist. Then there’s the Diablo 4 player who said they ran through 1,270 cellars in just three days to “see what happens”.
Diablo 4 launched big, becoming Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever. It is also a hit with critics, and, generally, has gone down well with fans. However, the cost of Diablo 4’s microtransactions has raised eyebrows, and, surprisingly, Whoopi Goldberg called on Blizzard to release Diablo 4 on Mac.
Check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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