We’re back in the 1980s again, you’d be forgiven for thinking, after a billboard in Melbourne Australia has received enough complaints to prompt a response by the Australian Ads Standards Community. While it has mercifully dismissed the complaint, Josh Taylor—a reporter for the Guardian Australia—tweeted the following:
One concerned motorist complained on the grounds of “Religious reasons, and it’s promoting evil and satanic paraphernalia.” Looking at the full case report, I feel like I’ve taken a step back in time to an era when Dungeons and Dragons was wrapped up in the satanic panic.
“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 already given them nightmares.”
“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.”
One complaint even cited the Covid-19 Pandemic as a reason for their upset: “Even as an adult it brought back memories of …