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Marvel Rivals TikTok ad breached advertising ethics by suggesting players should "abuse" Invisible Woman this season
The ad, which showed Invisible Woman in her Malice skin and the words "Abuse Her This Season," was meant to promote the new season which introduced the Fantastic Four to Marvel Rivals.
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As the video game industry gets more competitive, companies need to get creative with how they approach marketing their games. However, it seems that Marvel Rivals developer NetEase might have pushed the envelope a little bit too far with a recent TikTok ad for the game, which has been accused of promoting sexual violence against women with the suggestion that fans should “abuse” Invisible Woman’s incredible powers this season.
The ad in question ran on TikTok to help promote Marvel Rivals to potential fans. The first two seconds of the ad showed a still image of Invisible Woman in her Malice skin with the words “Abuse Her This Season” pasted on top. While we know that they mean to take advantage of the fact that Invisible Woman is one of the most powerful characters in Marvel Rivals at the moment, certain fans pointed out that the phrasing seemed to make light of the idea of domestic violence against women.
The Ad Standards Community Panel in Australia seems to have agreed, commenting that the Marvel Rivals ad “contained a level of sexualized violence which was not appropriate and did not treat the issue of sex, sexuality, and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant TikTok audience.”
It is worth noting that neither Marvel Games nor NetEase, the developer of Marvel Rivals, responded to the initial investigation into the ad and did not comment on the panel's findings before they were published. As the ad was meant to promote the new season, which started in January and caused a 3000% increase in searches for Invisible Woman on Google, it is likely that the promotion will simply be ended and no further action will be taken.
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