The British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research and Diabetes UK have all lent their considerable weight behind a new Government advertising campaign that draws a direct line between video games and death. Yup…

The offending ad shows a pre-teen gamer, Sixaxis pad in hand, slumped and gormless as if in the thrall of some insidious piece of software - we‘ll let you imagine which particular game that might be. Meanwhile the message, just in case you haven’t got it, is loud and clear: “RISK AN EARLY DEATH. JUST DO NOTHING”.

Hmm, the word ‘spurious’ doesn’t come close to covering it. In the first instance the campaign, which is part of the Department of Health’s ‘Change4Life’ initiative, rather flies in the face of Microsoft’s study last week which not only concluded that games were beneficial to the mental development of kids, but actually concurred with a European Parliament report on the very same matter.

And, secondly, why pick on games? Society has become more sedentary, partial to the occasional trip to Mickey D’s and could probably do with a bit more exercise, as we’re repeatedly reminded. However games, particularly those from Nintendo’s stable, have made great strides in getting players off the couch, dancing, working out, singing, interacting and, dare we say, even thinking. To scapegoat games in this manner isn’t just unfair, it’s phenomenally lazy and pandering to the very worst prejudices held by the disposable media that hosted the ads. Grrr.

It’s small wonder that the UK gamesbiz has taken great umbrage - especially since it wasn’t all that long ago that it was being congratulated for the billions it was contributing to the UK economy. With such egregious hypocrisy in mind, industry trade mag MCV has taken up the baton and complained to the Advertising Standards Authority. We await their ruling with great anticipation, although surely there can only be one outcome…?