Joseph Anzalone, a DC Metro-rider, recently sent a letter to the editor of the Washington Post criticizing the judgment of WMATA officials for allowing advertisements for the post-apocolyptic game Fallout 3 to be posted in Metro Center:
Metrorail riders who have passed through Metro Center over the past several weeks may have noticed signs throughout the station advertising a video game called “Fallout 3.” A heavily armored enemy soldier appears in the foreground of the ads, and the background includes images of seemingly war-ravaged national landmarks.
* * *The people of our city do not need a daily reminder that Washington is a prime target for an attack. We do not need a daily reminder of what our worst fears look like. Since any First Amendment objection would be irrelevant (the ads do not present a true viewpoint or political message and would therefore not be protected), there is no reason for these ads to be part of our daily panorama.
The ads should be removed, and the appropriate office at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority should be directed to exercise better judgment regarding what can be displayed in our transportation system.
For those unfamiliar with the ads, BlindsideDork at Destructoid.com has a good collection of images and videos.
I have a few problems with Mr. Anzalone’s letter:
First, his First Amendment argument is fatally flawed. Nowhere in the Article I does it say that only “true viewpoints” and “political messages” are protected. Sure, the government must overcome an exceptionally high burden to ban this type of speech, but it’s not the only speech that is protected.
Second, I think the images are intentionally evocative — that’s just good advertising. Fallout 3 takes place in a post-apocolyptic Washington, DC; the images displayed in Metro Center center simply depict the game’s setting and are meant to be powerful enough to stir up interest in the product. The developer of Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks, happens to be located just outside of DC in Bethesda, MD — I sincerely doubt they’re trying to cause a panic in the area. Besides, the notion to decorate Metro Center to look like one of the famed “vaults” in the game is just damned clever ad-wizardry.
To be honest, I pass through Metro Center at least 10 times a week and I don’t even notice the ads anymore. As a gamer, I was really interested to see them go up, but they quickly faded into the background of the chaos that overtakes the DC Metro around rush hour, which, if you ask me, is a much more telling portent of the chaos that would consume DC following any sort of terrorist attack.
[via GamePolitics]
