Apparently one of the viewer’s kids were “frightened by the advertâ€, although it’s not entirely clear from the context whether they were frightened by the scenes in the ad or the five year old graphics engine.
Its Summer Holidays here now so most under 18s are at home, at a friends or out in the street vandalising something. Showing the add during day time is irresponsible from the broadcaster giving the time of year and time of day & like Tarryn said the game is rated 18 anyways so advertising it is akin to advertising cigarettes or alcohol or porn, yet all those are "banned" out right (cigarettes) or kept for later in the day (alcohol, porn). I dont see the big fuss, its not like they banned it completely.
I wouldn't say it's a bad thing to not show it during the day. It's just incredible that the authorities take notice of just two complaints. I'm used to South Africa though, where authorities don't really seem to give a crap.
The flip side though is that there are always a few people who complain about anything and everything, and if it just takes a couple of complaints for action to be taken, pretty soon everything will be banned all the time.
Well hey, how many adverts for 16 rated, or even 18 rated action movies do you see on TV?
Also, news. I've seen much worse things on the news than I've seen in videogames.