"Captivity" ad campaign pulled due to its gratuitous depiction of the film's star Elisha Cuthbert being tortured and killed.

A marketing campaign for the upcoming film "Captivity" has created a public outcry, and led to Los Angeles billboards and New York taxicab advertising being pulled.

The ads feature images of the abduction, torture and death of a young woman. Complaints to the film's producer, distributor and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) cited the gratuitous depiction of the film's star Elisha Cuthbert being tortured and killed.

From Reuters:

The billboards, first posted March 13, feature four frames with captions above each one. "Abduction" shows Cuthbert with a gloved hand over her face; "Confinement" features the actress behind a chain-link fence with a bloody finger poking through; "Torture" depicts Cuthbert's face, covered in white gauze, with tubes shoved up her nose; and "Termination" shows her with her head thrown back, seemingly dead.

The film's producer, After Dark, said the posting of the billboards was an accident. CEO Courtney Solomon said the wrong files were sent to the printer, who then passed them on to the billboard company without approval from any executives at After Dark.

"Personally, I wasn't going to go with this campaign. I thought it was OTP (over the top)," Solomon said. "Nothing like this can ever happen again."