MPAA Bans This Poster

Propaganda Party: The Pop Stalin Design Manifesto

16 Comments | Dec 20 | Design

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has rejected Taxi On the Dark Side’s poster as being “not suitable for all audiences.” However, posters for The Hills Have Eyes 2, Saw IV, Hostel Part II and The Eye seem to be suitable for children.

What’s offensive about this image? The detainee in the hood. Well, actually just the hood. An MPAA spokesman said: “We treat all films the same. Ads will be seen by all audiences, including children. If the advertising is not suitable for all audiences it will not be approved by the advertising administration.”

Seems kind of silly to me when we see worse on the evening news and I’ve seen worse movie posters (like those linked above) when going into the cinema. I’m glad about the backlash though because the poster is well-designed and seems to get the point across. Lastly, I’ve heard about a movie that I hadn’t heard of prior to this. What are your thoughts, if you have/had children would you find this offensive?

16 People Have Bloviated

Lorissa | Dec 21

Excuses, excuses. A severed head – ok. A hooded head – not so much. Riiiigght. I think any intelligent person can see the real reason for why they state this is an “offensive” image. It is very well designed indeed and although this really isn’t my type of movie, I will probably go and see it. The poster has done its job well.

If I had children, god forbid, I wouldn’t take offense at all. I would hope it would make him/her think a little more and perhaps ask a question or two. But that would be promoting thinking, and even free will, and we all know how horrendous those things are, right? I mean, just look at the idiocy of people reacting against The Golden Compass.
Pop Stalin | Dec 21

I don’t know what exactly the idiocy surrounding the Golden Compass is but I’ve heard tales that there is idiocy.
Jigsaw Forte | Dec 22

Yeah… there’s a liberal bias in Hollywood, all right… sure…
Tice | Dec 22

Interesting! Seems like some people don’t want to be remembered on see what’s going on in Guantanamo USA the cinema. ; )
ciubecca | Dec 22

They should have used a picture of a TV set showing CNN coverage of Guantanamo.
Sam S. | Dec 22

Those movie industry people seem to love those floating heads… thats pretty gruesome to me.
Sean Foushee | Dec 22

If you re-read that Vanity article linked above you’ll find that the reason the MPAA banned the hooded image had nothing to do with some ultra-right conspiracy to cleanse our memories of any atrocities, but rather due to the Association’s assertion that placing a hood on a person’s head depicts torture. They’ve rejected artwork in the past, as mentioned in the before mentioned Vanity article, with similar depictions, so this isn’t an isolated incident. In fact, two of the movies you linked to as illustrations of the MPAA’s ridiculous stance, SAW and Hostel, were also snared in the MPAA’s decision to axe any images of hooded individuals. I think the outrage here should be towards the MPAA’s warped sense of reality wherein a severed head isn’t torture, but a piece of cloth over someone’s head is, which brings up an interesting observation, would the MPAA consider illustrations of women wearing a Hajib deceptions of torture?
Sam S. | Dec 22

Or, to bring this away from **The War on Terror,** what about these:
Amistad poster which depicted chains, but not the people attached to them, or slaves, without chains that joined them in each of the two posters.
Schindler’s List poster which showed the hand of the girl in the red coat who either was dead at the time or would have ended up dead later in the movie.
Sam S. | Dec 22

Schindler’s List link didnt work- http://www.impawards.com/1993/schindlers_list.html
Valontuoja | Dec 22

[...] MPAA Bans This Poster (Pop Stalin Designs’ Design Blog) The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has rejected Taxi On the Dark Side’s poster as being “not suitable for all audiences.” 23. December 2007 (0 minuuttia sitten) – Internetit Tagit: mpaa, sensuuri, Taxi On the Dark Side [...]
Pop Stalin | Dec 23

Sean:
I would guess the whole thing is that compared to the images linked (and I am aware of their stance on the other documentaries) in my opinion the hooded “torture” image is tame in comparison. Of course, that said, what’s that say about us as a society when we view somewhere being “hooded” as tame?

Sam S:
I think the MPAA has a warped sense of right and wrong. It’s as though if it isn’t on a poster then it either didn’t happen or we can’t handle the realities of reality or some such nonsense.

It’s just a shame that some designer did a really good job putting the above poster together and it was all for naught… or was it? I for one am getting tired of being told what we can handle as a society, especially when there are such discrepancies in what we are allowed to see.
Martijn | Dec 24

I only get the green on black text ad.gif if I press any of the mentioned poster links.
Any idea why? Using Fx, allowing popstalin.com on NoScript didn’t solve it.

Still weird that it’s banned, I didn’t even recognize the hood when I first saw it.
Pop Stalin | Dec 24

Martin: I fixed that link, thanks for letting me know about it.
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