A Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 ad has been banned in the United Kingdom after the country's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled it trivialized sexual violence. The ruling, issued on February 16, 2026, means the commercial can no longer air anywhere in the UK in its current form.
The ad in question is an installment of the long-running "Replacer" promo series, titled "Airport Security." It first appeared on the official Call of Duty YouTube channel on November 6, 2025, and later ran on ITV, Channel 5, and their on-demand platforms. Nine viewers filed complaints with the ASA arguing the ad made light of sexual violence, while two others took issue with what they saw as drug use being condoned. The ASA upheld the sexual violence complaints but dismissed the drug-related ones.
The Replacer Campaign
The Replacer ads have been a fixture of Black Ops marketing for years. Actor Peter Stormare has played the lead character in every Black Ops promotional campaign except for Black Ops Cold War, and the premise is always the same: a team of "Replacers" takes over everyday jobs so the actual employees can ditch work and play the latest Call of Duty.
For Black Ops 7, Stormare returned alongside comedian Nikki Glaser and actor Terry Crews. The trio appeared across multiple spots released around the game's November 2025 launch window. Most of these went over fine. The "Airport Security" spot did not.
What Happens in the Ad
The setup follows the usual Replacer formula. Real airport security workers have left their posts to go play Black Ops 7, and Stormare's team has taken over.
During the ad, Stormare's character singles out a man in the security line and tells him he's been "randomly selected to be manhandled," ordering him to face the wall. After rifling through the man's luggage and mocking a prescription bottle inside, Stormare tells him to strip down, delivering the line: "I'm gonna need you to remove your clothes, everything but the shoes."
Glaser's character then steps in, snapping on a latex glove. "Time for the puppet show," she says. The implication is clear: she's about to perform an invasive internal body search.
A post-credits scene drives it further. Stormare tells the man to "bite down on this" (a metal detector baton) before adding, "She's going in dry."
No explicit imagery appears on screen and the man stays clothed throughout, but the dialogue and staging leave little ambiguity about what's being implied.
Why the ASA Banned It
The ASA's ruling acknowledged that most viewers would read the ad as an attempt at humor. It also recognized the lack of explicit or graphic imagery. None of that was enough to save it.
The regulator's central issue was how the comedy functioned. In its written ruling, the ASA stated the humor was "generated by the humiliation and implied threat of painful, non-consensual penetration of the man, an act associated with sexual violence." The confident, joking attitudes of Stormare and Glaser's characters only made it worse in the ASA's view, presenting the implied act as casual entertainment.
Because the ad "alluded to non-consensual penetration, and framed it as an entertaining scenario," the ASA concluded it trivialized sexual violence. The regulator called it "irresponsible and offensive."
As a result, the ad "must not appear again in its current form." The ASA also told Activision Blizzard to make sure future Call of Duty ads are "socially responsible and did not cause serious offence, for example by trivialising sexual violence."
Activision's Response
Activision Blizzard UK Ltd pushed back hard on the complaints, mounting a multi-point defense.
The publisher pointed to the game's 18 age rating in the UK, arguing the ad was made for adult audiences with a higher tolerance for exaggerated humor. The whole thing, Activision said, depicted a "deliberately implausible, parodic scenario that bore no resemblance to real airport security procedures."
On the sexual violence allegations specifically, Activision was blunt. The company said the ad didn't sexualize security searches and contained "no implication that the acts were sexual." The "bite down" line, according to Activision, referenced discomfort rather than anything sexual. The man being searched stayed clothed the entire time and never left the checkpoint setting, which Activision argued made it clear no strip search or nudity occurred.
Activision also described the searched individual as appearing "bewildered rather than distressed," framing it as evidence that the tone was comedic, not harmful. Even if some viewers picked up on sexual innuendo, the publisher argued, the ad contained "no explicit content or objectifying imagery."
The Replacer characters themselves, Activision said, were "absurd caricatures whose incompetence and inappropriateness were the basis of the humour, not role models." The joke, in the publisher's view, was about bumbling imposters doing a terrible job, not about victimizing anyone.
The ASA wasn't persuaded.
How It Got on the Air
The ad went through proper channels before broadcast. Clearcast, the independent body that pre-clears UK television advertisements, reviewed and approved it. The organization assigned an "ex-kids" timing restriction, blocking it from running during or near children's programming.
Clearcast told the ASA that while "some viewers may have found the ad to be distasteful," the spot was "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence" on balance. That assessment didn't hold up once the ASA got involved.
Online Reception
The ASA ruling didn't come out of nowhere. Even before the formal complaints, the "Airport Security" ad wasn't landing well with viewers. It racked up a high number of dislikes on YouTube and drew plenty of critical comments. The negative reaction from the Call of Duty community preceded the regulatory complaints by a significant margin.
Previous UK Ad Bans
Call of Duty marketing has clashed with UK regulators in the past. Back in 2012, an ad for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 earned a daytime broadcast ban for showing characters firing at a truck. That ruling restricted when the ad could air but didn't pull it entirely, making the Black Ops 7 outcome more severe by comparison since the ad can't reappear in any form.
The franchise's marketing has a pattern of pushing into provocative territory for its adult audience, and UK regulators have shown they're willing to step in when they feel the line has been crossed.
Black Ops 7's Bigger Problems
The ad ban is far from the only headache for Black Ops 7. While the game has posted strong engagement numbers (Circana's tracking data shows consistent playtime on PlayStation and Xbox) and topped US sales charts in November 2025, the financial picture tells a different story.
Year-over-year sales figures have declined significantly. Black Ops 7 has struggled against stiff competition from Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders, with European sales data reflecting the pressure. Activision has acknowledged the softer-than-expected performance.
The game also drew controversy for using generative AI to create in-game assets, a topic that attracted criticism both before and after launch.
All of this prompted Activision to announce major changes to how Call of Duty releases will work going forward. One of the biggest: a commitment to never release consecutive games in the same sub-brand. Back-to-back Modern Warfare or Black Ops entries are off the table, marking a real shift in the franchise's release strategy.
Where Black Ops 7 Stands Now
Content updates are still rolling out on schedule. Season 2 recently launched with three new multiplayer maps and a remastered version of Slums from Black Ops 2. Ranked Play also went live with the update, along with new modes for multiplayer fans.
Warzone received a refreshed take on Rebirth Island, and more content is set to arrive as part of the Season 2 Reloaded mid-season drop in the coming weeks. On the anti-cheat front, the development team detailed new measures under the Ricochet system aimed at cracking down on ranked play cheaters heading into Season 2.
