It upheld complaints about a commercial created by Activision Blizzard UK Ltd to promote the 18-rated video game.
The advert, which ran on YouTube and video on demand services including ITV and Channel 5 in November 2025, depicted fictional “replacer” airport security staff stepping into roles because the real officers were too busy playing the latest instalment in the Call of Duty franchise.
Nine viewers complained to the ASA a scene involving an invasive airport search was inappropriate.
In the advert, set at an airport security checkpoint, a man is told he has been randomly selected “to be manhandled” and is instructed to remove his clothes down to “everything but the shoes”, while a female officer puts on gloves and says “time for the puppet show”.
The ASA said the storyline included a non-consensual, invasive search of a man passing through security.
Although it acknowledged the video did not show explicit imagery and that the man remained clothed throughout, the watchdog said the humour was “generated by the humiliation and implied threat of painful, non-consensual penetration of the man”.
It concluded the advert trivialised sexual violence and was therefore “irresponsible and offensive”, and ruled it must not appear again in its current form.
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd said the advert had been reviewed by Clearcast, the body that pre-clears television advertising, and had been approved with an “ex-kids” timing restriction.
The company said the commercial was not broadcast during or around children’s programming or content likely to appeal to under-16s.
It said the campaign was aimed at adults, arguing the 18-rated game targeted audiences with “a higher tolerance for irreverent or exaggerated humour”.
The company maintained the advert depicted a deliberately implausible and parodic scenario that bore no resemblance to real airport security procedures.
It said the search scene was not sexualised and that the humour referred to discomfort rather than sex.
The firm added that even if some viewers inferred innuendo, the ad did not contain explicit content or objectifying imagery.
The ASA also considered complaints from two viewers who questioned whether the advert encouraged or condoned drug use after replacement officers picked up a prescription medication container and winked.
That complaint was not upheld.
The ruling follows previous action against the franchise.
In 2012, an advert for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was given a daytime ban by the ASA over scenes of violence and destruction deemed “inappropriate” for young children.
