Patrick Soderlund, Executive Vice President EA Studios, introduces the video game |Battlefield 1' during Microsoft Corp. Xbox at the Galen Center on June 13, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Kevork Djansezian)
"Battlefield 1" publisher Electronic Arts (EA) learnt the hard way that it is not okay to glorify World War 1 to sell a video game. The company was criticized for posting "insensitive" memes about World War 1 on "Battlefield 1's" official Twitter account.
Using the hashtag #justWWIthings, the social media account shared several memes and GIFs with phrases like "weekend goals" to promote their recent release, which is set during World War I. In one such cringe worthy post, published on Oct. 30, Sunday, the "Battlefield 1" account shared a GIF of a soldier being burned alive using a flamethrower.
On Oct. 28, Friday, the account posted another controversial tweet asking followers about their plans for the weekend. The tweet contained a GIF of soldiers standing in front of a burning zeppelin crashing to earth. Both tweets have since been deleted but not before users took a screenshot of the posts.
@EA's #justWW1things tweet had some pretty offensive fonts. pic.twitter.com/EJKbsGxdua
— SURVIVAL MODE (@_survivalmode) October 31, 2016
The @battlefield tweet I do hope they apologize for pic.twitter.com/rfgH2uMAHX — BEWARE: Ed Zitron (@edzitron) October 31, 2016
Several users voiced their anger over the insensitive tweets and criticized the video game for glorifying World War 1, which took place between 1914 and 1918 and resulted in more than 37 million casualties, according to PBS. The official "Battlefield 1" account immediately issued an apology following the backlash.
We apologize for any offense taken to content posted earlier. It was not at all our intent to show any lack of respect to the WW1 era.
— Battlefield (@Battlefield) October 31, 2016
Later, EA apologized in a separate statement obtained by Polygon. "We would like to apologize for any offense caused by content in the last 24 hours posted on the @Battlefield Twitter account," the statement read. "It did not treat the World War 1 era with the respect and sensitivity that we have strived to maintain with the game and our communications."
This is not the first time a gaming publisher has come under fire for posting insensitive tweets. In 2015, Activision was blasted on social media for marketing "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3" with a fictional breaking news story about a terrorist attack in Singapore.
Check out the trailer of "Battlefield 1" below:
