Ad Standards says hell is a ‘fictional location’ and not Melbourne in response to Diablo IV billboard complaint

Ad Standards has rejected a complaint that a billboard advertisement for Diablo IV is offensive to Christians or reminiscent of “the hell” Melbourne went through during COVID-19 lockdowns.

Releasing back in June, Diablo IV is one of the biggest games of 2023. According to publisher Activision Blizzard, it hit US$666 million in sales within five days of release.

Hell is a consistent theme throughout the entire Diablo series, so its played a large role in the marketing leading up to the latest instalment in the franchise.

‘Welcome to Hell’ billboards have been dotted over the world, including in Australia and the US.

Someone in Melbourne took issue with this and is currently being dragged to filth (but not hell) over on Twitter. They also didn’t find much sympathy from Ad Standards.

lol someone complained to Ad Standards that the Diablo ad reminded them of lockdown?? pic.twitter.com/osqdpLYcms

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) July 4, 2023

Complaint says that Diablo IV billboard is satanic and reminiscent of COVID-19 lockdowns

A submission to Ad Standards complained about a Victorian billboard that depicted the game’s antagonist, Lilith, with the words “Welcome to Hell, Melbourne”. The submission was entered under two sections of the AANA Code of Ethics: Discrimination or Vilification and Violence.

According to the complaint, the billboard promoted evil and satanic paraphernalia.

“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. The imagery is also inappropriate for my children to see and has allready [sic] given them nightmares,” the complaint read.

It went on to link the advertisement to Melbourne lockdowns.

“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.”

Activision Blizzard rejected the complaints, arguing that the billboard wasn’t violent or graphics in nature, nor derogatory.

“The ‘Welcome to Hell’ refers to a fictional location that a person will visit as part of the gameplay in their quest to defeat the fictional villain portrayed in the ads. Given the punctuation, it does not state or imply that Brisbane or Melbourne is ‘hell’ and as such is not derogatory to these cities, or any of their inhabitants,” it said in its response.

Ad Standards disagree, no evidence of hell being released

The Ad Standards Community Panel dismissed the complaint on both grounds. It firstly stated that the ad didn’t depict any religion in a negative light and was therefore not discriminatory.

It also didn’t accept the notion that Melbourne was being depicted negatively.

“The Panel also noted that the billboard states ‘Welcome to hell, (city)’, with the comma indicating that the billboard is not suggesting that the city itself is hell, but rather is inviting residents to play the game,” the report read.

“It does not suggest that Brisbane or Melbourne are hell. There is also no indication in the ads of releasing hell in any of those locations.”

The panel also didn’t find the ad to depict any kind of violent or graphic acts and didn’t have a problem with Lilith being featured.

“The Panel noted that the image was of the main character of the film, and was therefore directly related to the product being advertised. The Panel noted that the character was not dissimilar to other well-known characters such as Maleficient (Disney), and noted a Melbourne sports team called the Demons,” the report said.

Ad Standards is certainly no stranger to wild ads. Just last year it ruled against a ‘Do you f!@#ing mind’ radio ad that MILKRUN ran. And that’s just one of many, many weird ad complaints it gets every year.