SNK Apologizes For Gross Ad Showing Fictional Sexual Assault Of Minor
SNK Global issues an apology for an ad for a mobile game featuring the sexual assault of three characters, one of which is canonically underage.
SNK Global issued a public apology after its licensing partners produced an ad for the mobile fighting game SNK Allstar, which featured King of Fighters star and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighter Terry Bogard sexually assaulting three female SNK fighters (one of whom is canonically underage) by slapping them on the rear. While the ad's ending foreshadows Terry getting his just deserts, the vulgar ad for SNK Allstar inarguably uses casual sex crime as a marketing tool.
SNK Allstar is a mobile spinoff of The King of Fighters, which was first introduced in 1994. The King Of Fighters originated from SNK's previous titles, such as Fatal Fury (1991), where Terry Bogard made his first appearance. SNK fighting games and characters have since made their way onto virtually every gaming platform, and The King of Fighters series remains one of the most popular in the competitive fighting scene. Terry Bogard even made his way onto the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster in 2019, a high honor that makes him even more recognizable to gamers everywhere.
However, Facebook recently began running a highly offensive ad for SNK Allstar featuring an animated short of Terry Bogard riding his motorcycle and smacking the butts of three of the game's female fighters: Kula Diamond, Mai Shiranui, and Blue Mary. It is worth noting that, while all of these slaps were unsolicited, Kula Diamond is canonically 14-years-old, and Terry Bogard is 34. Not only did the ad glorify sexual assault, but it also sexualized a minor in the process. Following justified outrage, SNK Global posted a public apology on Twitter for the ad stating that it did not meet SNK's ethical standards and that SNK played no part in the creation of the ad. The ad has since been removed, but the damage had already been done, and the video has been re-uploaded by various internet users.
It's clear that the ad was meant to sexualize the three females and SNK's licensing partners were attempting to use that sexual energy (and sexual assault) as a marketing tool. Sadly, this is a trope that ads for mobile games fall heavily into. There are plenty of games on the mobile market that produce ads with oversexualized and wildly inappropriate content with the intent to prey on younger viewers. For SNK, however, this isn't the first time they have used sexual imagery to promote its games. A series of magazine advertisements were run in the late 90s advertising the Neo Geo featuring a woman in lingerie explaining how her husband doesn't play with her anymore, he only plays SNK games.
While it is a nice sentiment that SNK Global will strive to do better in the future, mobile gaming advertisers as a whole need to do better. Platforms that these ads appear on need to screen advertisements more thoroughly. While the SNK Allstar ad shouldn't have been made in the first place, it also should never have been approved by Facebook for it to run.
Sources: SNK Global, LordryuRevived