8. Hitman: Blood Money - "Beautifully Executed"
Leading up to the release of Hitman: Blood Money, a series of adverts were run for the game which depicted Agent 47 performing a number of slick assassinations; a man locked in a freezer was ascribed the tagline "coldly executed", a woman electrocuted in the bath was "shockingly executed", and a cellist slumped in a chair was "classically executed". However, things went to the next level with the above advert, which depicted a sexy woman dressed in lingerie, having been shot through the head, adorned with the tagline, "beautifully executed". The controversy stemmed from the use of both sex and violence to simultaneously sell a game, as well as objections to the notion that execution could ever be "beautiful". Marketing sex and violence in the same sphere is always going to be extremely controversial because of the perception that the two should not be intermingled for the betterment of society.