Complaint against Diablo 4 ad for “promoting evil” dismissed in Australia
Blizzard EntertainmentDiablo 4 Season 1 will bring a whole new flavor to the game.
Someone in Melbourne, Australia filed a complaint against Blizzard’s Diablo 4 billboard for “promoting evil.”
To promote Diablo 4’s launch in June, Blizzard erected a host of billboards in major cities across the globe. The “Welcome to Hell” ad in New York especially drew attention because wildfires in Canada had turned the city’s skyline red.
Not everyone was on board with Blizzard’s marketing campaign, however. Notably, one person in Melbourne, Australia complained about the ad to the country’s Ad Standards Community Panel.
The complaint claimed the billboard offended Christians and Catholics by “promoting evil.” Interestingly, the person also said the advertisement reminded them of the hell of living in lockdown for two years.
Australia’s Ad Standards dismisses Diablo 4 billboard complaint
As spotted by Australian reporter Josh Taylor, the Ad Standards Community Panel swiftly dismissed the complainant’s objection. The panel cited several reasons as to why it believed the Diablo 4 billboard didn’t violate its Code of Ethics.
For one, the advertisement featured no discrimination towards a specific religious group, nor did it include references to a Satanic Cult. Responding to the “promoting evil” claim, the panel noted that “Welcome to Hell” references a fictional locale in Diablo.
The claim that the word choice frightened children and reminded the complainant of the lockdown constituted another non-issue for the Ad Standards group. “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.”
And with regards to issues concerning the image of Lilith and the supposed depiction of violence: “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.”
How the person who issued the complaint took the response isn’t known, but reason suggests the billboard has already come down, considering Diablo 4 just turned a month old.
Though she likely won’t be haunting the nightmares of Melbourne residents any longer, Lilith continues to wreak havoc on the world of Sanctuary for some players. And Blizzard plans on extending the community’s stay in its hellish world when Season 1 drops in the coming weeks.
