Fox Pulls Ad Campaign for Video Game

Fox Interactive, a unit of 20th Century Fox, has pulled an advertising campaign for a video game after critics complained that it glorified illegal drug use. The ads for Fox’s game “N20: Nitrous Oxide” appeared in Spin, Source and other youth-targeted magazines. In the game, made for the Sony PlayStation video console, nitrous oxide is used by players as a fuel to boost rocket performance. But the ads urged N20 players to “Never trip alone” and to “Breathe in. Breathe out.” Nitrous oxide, commonly known as the laughing gas used by dentists, has gained popularity as a drug young people use to feel lightheaded. Fox Interactive said the company “understands that the N20 advertising campaign has provoked criticism and apologizes for any references which evoke drug use in some of the ads.”