Guns N' Roses ads removed following outcry

[Loaded NightraiN]

Smart publicity, if you ask me 


Nov. 5, 2012, 11:55 AM EST

WENN

Controversial posters advertising Guns N' Roses' upcoming Las Vegas residency have been taken down after campaigners said they glamorized rape.


Axl Rose's band is performing a series of shows at the Hard Rock Hotel in Sin City until the end of the month, and the concerts have been advertised with an image of a woman who appears to have been sexually assaulted under the city's famous "Welcome" sign. The picture appeared on posters, billboards and in newspapers, sparking outrage among anti-sexual abuse campaigners.

Hannah Brook, executive director of The Rape Crisis Center, tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "This type of advertising is simply unacceptable. Not only for just the victims and the message of violence it brings, but also for the community in general. This is not the type of message we want to portray to tourists that are coming to our city. We want them to know it's a safe place to come, and by putting a message out there with Las Vegas above it is concerning."

Bosses at the Hard Rock Hotel have now issued an apology and modified all of the advertisements. A statement from the company reads, "Hard Rock Hotel & Casino regrets that the Guns N' Roses advertising for their current shows has offended any member of the community. The resort has decided to further modify the art and began the process of changing the materials (on Friday)." The band's shows kicked off at the Hard Rock Hotel on Halloween.

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=773099

[GnR-NOW]

Rape is one of the worst things ever and I have no sympathy for rapists who are in prison.

The GNR cover however is not a problem, just listen to certain other genres of music and how they portray women

[AxlReznor]

For God's sake don't show these people what they're kids can see in comics every week nowadays. They'd have an aneurysm!

[JAEBALL]

Can't blame anybody who takes offense to it...

[Z?phyr]

Welcome back to the 80's, it worked back then to cause a stir and it still does

[cineater]

Whatever

[slashsbaconpit]

History repeats itself ...

[liesl9]

To be fair the original artwork had been slightly altered, enough to pull it out of context.

Original painting used on AfD and t-shirts: Raped woman on ground; robot rapist about to be torn apart by monster jumping the fence

Artwork used in Vegas: Raped woman on ground and Vegas sign

Those two do send a different message from each other...I wouldn't blame anyone who was triggered or upset by it and I do wonder what made them decide to use the altered art. I wish they'd have come up with some cool original artwork for Vegas instead. They have it for the t-shirts; why not for the publicity too? The band is its own entity; they don't need art from 25 years ago, do they?

[AxlReznor]

The way it has been talked about in the run-up to the shows, they're meant as a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Appetite For Destruction, so using the AFD artwork makes sense.

[willow]

At least it's a piece of artwork, instead of all of those signs of strippers all over town!! Give it up!

[Mr. Redman]

Original and redone box office posters.

[One.In.A.Million]

Original and redone box office posters.

Come on, how rediculous is that. 

The original poster was fine, and was not offensive at all in my view. This is just damage control because one or two nerds have decided to spark up some controversy. And in anycase, there are much more damaging things in the world relating to "rape" that get the go ahead in films, books, sitcoms, magazines etc, which a far more accessible to the public than a comic book poster advertising a rock bands residency at the Hard Rock.

Worlds getting crazy...

[tim_m]

People are too damn sensitive and politically correct today. Imagine if the artwork axl had originally wanted to use wasn't rejected by geffen and was being used for their Vegas residency?

[AxlReznor]

What is the robot threatening now? If they had to change it, why not change the whole thing instead of just taking the woman out and making it look like the robot is threatening a wall?

[ckgent]

The stars have also gone from the wall,were the chinese offended by the use of them??

[AxlReznor]

The stars have also gone from the wall,were the chinese offended by the use of them??

More likely Americans thought it was promoting Communism...

EDIT: As far as I can tell, the stars haven't been removed. They're just now covered by the sign. The largest star is still visible.

[Mr. Redman]

Stars are still there, just doesn't look like it with the bigger sign now. Glad I was able to secure both versions & the gnr.com litho.

[volcano62]

It's awesome that 25 years later this image is still pissing off people