Sony Canada have been forced to remove 300 large poster advertisements from in and around Toronto bus shelters after complaints were received regarding the violent content contained in the ads, as well as the fact that the large “menacing head with glowing eyes” shown in the posters was frightening children.

One complaint came from a teacher in the Scarborough suburb of Toronto, Davis Mirza, who contacted Sony Canada after seeing the advertisement posted in a bus shelter near the school where he works. Mirza said:

“My kids, who come from a lot of different countries, who have to experience violence, who basically come here to seek shelter and safety, that’s the stuff they don’t need to see.

I don’t think that when you’re in Scarborough, where we’re having to deal on a constant basis with violence, that does anything to help promote any kind of community renewal or even responsibility.”

After receiving the complaint, Sony removed the advertisement in question, and then took down a further ten posters after a request was made by Toronto City Councillor Pam McConnell due to similar complaints.

Eventually it was decided to take down all of the remaining posters, as they were coming down at the end of the week anyway, said Sony Canada spokesman, Kyle Moffatt. Added Moffatt; “We just asked them to speed up the process.”

While Moffatt said that Sony Canada doesn’t control where specific adverts will be placed, they will in the future establish an ‘off-limits’ area for adverts around school zones for similar products.