Take Two Sues Chicago Transit Authority for GTA Ads

It was about two weeks ago when we reported that the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) had decided to withdraw the ad campaign on Grand Theft Auto, following news reports from Fox News stating that recent criminal and violent acts in Chicago were caused by the yet to be released (back then) Rockstar title. This decision was made even though Take Two and the CTA had a signed agreement, with a CTA representative stating that the publishers could not sue them on a freedom of speech matter.

It seems they were wrong since Reuters confirmed that Take Two has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Transit Authority for violating free speech and contractual rights. Both the Chicago authority and its sales agent, Titan Outdoor, were sued being accused of violating a $300,000 ad campaign agreement that included running ad posters for six weeks between April and June. The suit seeks an order from the CTA to run the ad campaign again, as well as pay monetary damages of at least $300,000.

"Although we prefer to resolve these issues amicably," a Take-Two spokesperson said in a statement, "the CTA has refused to discuss with us its outrageous decision to pull advertising for the critically acclaimed game Grand Theft Auto IV while running ads for other forms of popular entertainment with similar content, including mature-themed TV shows and R-rated movies."

It is worth noting that, even though we all know by now that Grand Theft Auto IV is indeed a very violent game, none of the ad posters in Chicago were offensive in any way (no violence, sexual acts, nor something similar). However, the ads were withdrawn and now we can fully understand why Take Two is furious. Still, no matter whether they win the lawsuit or not, it's a bit of free publicity for the game, so we could say that, in the end, everybody should be happy.