WARNING: This article contains descriptions and animations of domestic abuse
An ad sat on the bench over the Christmas browsing through social media, which left my bored thumb for a moment.
Imagine: a cartoon woman sat down and cut her toenails when a man, presumably her partner, jumped from behind her and threw a bucket of dust over her. Laughter follows, the man is clearly happy with the prank.
But that ‘dust’ he threw over her was her father’s ashes.
She runs to a salon for a ‘make -over’, upset, where she was her father’s ashes out of her hair. “Bye, dad,” she says as they turn in the drain. The viewer gets a ridiculous choice of how to continue – maybe to give her a haircut, a blow, maybe use the straight. Instead, a few clippers are taken to her head and by the end of the advertisement, the woman is bare, head in hands and crying uncontrollably. Text comes on the screen that asked me to “help the girl!”
This ad was for ‘Project Makeover’ – a mobile game, where the goal is to ‘urgently need to help people achieve their dreams’ by fiting three items in a puzzle and earning currency. It is available for children over 12 to download and play.
Of course, any good social media algorithm worth the salt will serve you more of what you watched, so in a few days I saw more disturbing ads for similar games.
An ad for ‘Gossip Harbor’, an equally candy -colored, childlike puzzle game, put a man in bed and chose his nose, clearly uninterested in his supposed wife and daughter sitting next to him. Smack as they reach out to him for attention. Text directions on the screen ask if she should “leave” or “endure”? The woman and her daughter then leave and they struggle to walk in the icy cold. The ad ends with it in a crumbling house, a snowstorm blowing through the window.
Another ad, this one for ‘Hollywood Story’ developed by Nanobit – promises players that they can ‘walk’ in the star -studded streets of Hollywood and notice your own path to fame – depicted a very different scenario. It has shown that an unattractive woman tries to capture a man in a relationship by piercing a condom.
A billion dollar -industry
These are just some of the many examples Sky News has seen of mobile game companies using themes of domestic abuse, violence and the humiliation of women to get download, when the games themselves – simple puzzle -apps – are little related to the narratives offered in the ads.
Because there is real money in the mobile games market. According to Bryter, only half of half of adults in the UK are playing games on telephones in a market that is expected to reach $ 2.76 billion this year.
Gossip Harbor, Project Makeover and Hollywood Story saw combined downloads of 67.7 million last year, earning a $ 367 million worldwide revenue by purchases in the app, according to digital intelligence firms similar WWB and AppMagic.
It works clearly, but why do these themes use?
“The mobile game space is so competitive … You have to work very, very hard to get eyeballs before your game, and even then you have to let them download and play the thing,” says Isabel Davies, a senior collaborator at Wiggin law firm, who advises game companies on regulatory matters.
‘I can see how games companies can pull some more controversial wires to get more an answer from their advertisement. This is incredibly disturbing. ‘
Misogynie is something that champion and influencer Eliza Hatch try to combat on social media.
She was behind the “Cheer Up Luv” account that retells the testimonies of people who suffered public sexual harassment.
‘It’s incredibly harmful if you even see these things unconsciously, if you see them actively, you are busy with them when you download these games. What is it encouraging? ‘ She told Sky’s data and forensic correspondent Tom Cheshire.
Campaign is concerned about misogie online
“It encourages an incredible negative stereotype over women, it encourages really harmful tropics around gender,” says Ms Hatch. “This idea that women should be saved or that women are always in a domestic abuse scenario or somehow harmed by someone. It can only continue negative stereotypes around gender, negative, harmful stereotypes around women.”
Advertising
It is the task of the British advertising standards authority to eliminate the negative stereotypes from the advertisements we encounter in our daily lives. Although advertisers may seem to have free rein, the British advertising standards authority maintains very strict guidelines.
In terms of ASA guidelines, advertisers should not include “… gender stereotypes that can probably cause damage or serious or widespread offense”.
And the guidelines ever develop. Just last month, rules were updated to include body image. Advertisers must now make sure that they do not portray specific body types in an irresponsible way or present an unhealthy body image as an aspiring, or exploit people’s uncertainties.
“We have clearly missed the brand”
We put it all to the businesses behind the Games.
Microfun, the company behind Gossip Harbor, did respond to our request for comment and has since taken off the advertisements we raised with them. They said: “The purpose of Microfun is to entertain safely and responsibly. In this case, we have clearly missed the brand, and we sincerely apologize for any distress that our advertising has caused.
“We have removed the advertisements in question. They no longer work, and we have done everything to ensure that they are not available to see.
“We have reviewed our policies and procedures, and we continue to do so to ensure that our content is appropriate.”
Nanobit, the developer of ‘Hollywood Story’, told us: ‘We understand your worries, but repeat that our advertising material is meant to be light -hearted, fictional scenarios that do not promote harmful stereotypes or gender -based violence.
“While we regret any offense caused by accident, we are confident that our ads comply with the regulations in question.”
We haven’t heard of Magic Tavern, the company behind Project Makeover.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, Support is available.
The Data and forensics Team is a multiple unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We collect, analyze and visualize data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite imagery, social media and other Open Source information. Through the multimedia storytelling, we want to explain the world better, while also showing how our journalism is done.
