Thompson claims that as the advertising screened in a teen-demographic heavy timeslot, Take Two is guilty of deliberately marketing mature games to underage players. Talking of the timeslot, Thompson said, "A check of the demographics of the audience of that program reveals that teens under 17 years of age watch that program in huge numbers…"
He continued, "Remarkably, the video game industry is running ads for games like BioShock on teen-intensive television programs while at the same time its industry-captured 'watchdog,' the ESRB, is running a self-congratulatory ad campaign to assure parents that the video game ratings system is working and that the industry can be trusted not to target their kids with these Mature-rated games. It is all a lie, as the BioShock ads prove."
Drawing a link between this action and the behaviours of the tobacco industry, he then used the occurrence to show why he believes the current rating system isn't working. Explaining, he said, "This rampant fraudulent trade practice is precisely what 'Big Tobacco' did with its 'Joe Camel' and other teen-targeting ads, while at the same time lying to Congress that it was not marketing its adult product to kids."
So far, despite Thompson's blustering, it appears to be much ado about nothing. However, given the emotionally confronting violence in BioShock and the easily misinterpreted role of Little Sisters within the game, it remains to be seen whether he'll take things further, possibly trying to turn it into another Grand Theft Auto.
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