MiHoYo's Residential Elevator Ads Branded 'Obscene' by Angry Parent — But Gamers Ask: Was the Real Target Audience the Parents All Along?

Anime game ads in a residential building elevator, an outraged parent filing complaints about "obscene content harming teenagers" — this might be the most hilariously predictable drama in the MiHoYo community recently. The original poster shared two photos of elevator ads in their apartment building with a single deadpan line: "I won't comment, it's just peak entertainment." The sheer energy of a popcorn-eating bystander in four words.

The story itself is straightforward: MiHoYo placed anime-style gacha game ads in residential elevators, which triggered complaints from parents who deemed them inappropriate and harmful to minors. For anyone familiar with the Chinese gaming community, this is nothing new — parents once complained that a magical girl character's pink hair was "encouraging kids to dye their hair." The cycle repeats.

But the real goldmine is the comment section. One player pointed out the glaring double standard: "Nobody ever complained about the thigh-high stocking boy (黑丝小男孩) character ads that were literally displayed IN shopping malls." This observation got massive upvotes, because somehow the same art style is perfectly fine in a mall but becomes "obscene" once it shows up in your apartment elevator. Someone fired back with the devastating reply: "Because the parents wanted to look at those themselves." Ouch.

Another player dropped an arguably brilliant take on the whole situation: the actual target demographic for elevator ads probably isn't teenagers who can freely use phones — it's the parents who are stuck riding the elevator multiple times a day. "In a way, the parent isn't even wrong — elevator ads for Honkai: Star Rail (铁道) aren't aimed at kids with smartphones." Followed by: "MiHoYo's grand conspiracy." The idea that MiHoYo was secretly marketing gacha waifus to busy parents all along is honestly a plot twist nobody expected.

As for why anime ads ended up in residential elevators in the first place, one user had a practical explanation: "They probably bought a ground-promotion advertising package that includes all sorts of ad placements." This would explain the seemingly mismatched placement — the elevator slot likely came bundled in a broader advertising deal, and nobody at the marketing team bothered to filter by venue type.

Most players in the thread were surprisingly chill about the whole thing. As one commenter put it: "Parent complaints about anime content are totally normal... someone once complained that a magical girl's pink hair was teaching kids to dye their hair." Others were hoping for more drama: "I hope it's a female parent who complained — I want to see T0 war break out" (T0 referring to China's most vocal online activist demographic). Some even pivoted straight to speculating about the game's next character banner, as if the parent complaint was just background noise.

All in all, this is less a genuine controversy and more a community-wide spectator sport. Parents think anime ads are inappropriate, gamers think parents are overreacting, and the peanut gallery just wants both sides to throw hands — classic internet entertainment. As for whether MiHoYo's elevator ads were really targeting kids or parents, only their marketing department knows the truth. And they're probably too busy counting gacha revenue to care.