An advertisement for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 released in November 2025 has been banned in the UK after that country’s Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints that it “trivialized sexual violence.”
The ad is an entry in the long-running “Replacer” series of Call of Duty promos featuring Peter Stormare, who in this one is joined by Nikki Glaser in an airport security line. In the ad, Stormare tells one man in line that he’s “been randomly selected to be manhandled,” and then orders him to face the wall. After ridiculing a prescription found in his luggage, Stormare tells the man to remove his clothing—”everything but the shoes”—at which point Glaser snaps on a rubber glove and says, “Time for the puppet show.” The ad concludes with Stormare telling the man to bite down on his metal detector, warning, “She’s going in dry.”
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The ad was not especially well received on YouTube, based on the comments and high number of dislikes. It also prompted nine complaints from viewers “who believed that the ad trivialised sexual violence,” according to the ASA’s report, and two from people who felt it “encouraged or condoned drug use.”
In response to the complaints, Activision said the ad was for an “18-rated videogame” targeted at adult audiences, and that it “depicted a deliberately implausible, parodic scenario that bore no resemblance to real airport security procedures.”
It also said the ad had been approved, with timing restrictions aimed at keeping it away from younger viewers, by Clearcast, an agency that reviews and clears advertisements for broadcast in the UK. Clearcast confirmed its approval, saying that while “some viewers may have found the ad to be distasteful … on balance, it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.”
The ASA disagreed, however: The agency rejected the complaints regarding drug use, but upheld the ones related to sexual violence. In its ruling, the ASA acknowledged that most viewers would see it as “intended to be humorous,” and that there was no explicit imagery.
“However, we noted that the humour in the ad was generated by the humiliation and implied threat of painful, non-consensual penetration of the man, an act associated with sexual violence,” the ASA wrote. “In addition, we considered the officers’ confident and joking demeanour presented this in a humorous manner.
“Because the ad alluded to non-consensual penetration, and framed it as an entertaining scenario, we considered that the ad trivialised sexual violence and was therefore irresponsible and offensive.”
Functionally, the ruling is not a huge blow to Activision: It means the ad “ad must not appear again in its current form.” The ASA also told Activision “to ensure that their ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious offence, for example by trivialising sexual violence.”
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