I never understood this one. Why is the Red Cross so annoyed about videogames depicting the red cross to mean health?
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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It is, genuinely, in the Geneva Conventions that nobody should use the red cross except for to designate medical staff and establishments that are protected under the conventions. The idea is to make sure that there is absolutely never any doubt that that symbol means anything else in order to minimise the risk to those people
Yeah they have a legitimate case for defending the use of the symbol so aggressively and the best way to avoid is to use the green and white variant that is used on pretty much every first-aid kit sold.
Still has the desired effect for both parties.
My biggest gripe with this is games that present a historical setting, such as World War 2 games. The Red Cross was all over the place during WW2. Saying game developers cannot ever use it under any context means that a game that wants to present historical accuracy would not be able to.
The way it could work is that they could just put a message before starting the game that the red cross is only there to present a historical setting, but otherwise is a symbol of Red Cross movement. And there could be a setting to switch to green crosses, if you want to stream, etc.
i look at this and nod. then i look at sponsored fortnite skins with the red cross and realize they dont give a fuck about that actually, theyre just greedy.
I haven't played Fortnite so I might be missing something, but glancing at screenshots and promotional stuff it looks like they're consistently using white on red instead of red on white
damn you right. fuck them anyway
Not sure about everyone else but to me using an insanely popular game to fund global non-profit organisation is kinda a good way to raise money. It's really a weird hill to die on.
nods and continues to use original doom wads with the red cross design for health pickups because the green one from BFG editions look like shit
Switzerland almost in trouble.
England blocked
(it's literally the Swiss cross)
To add, the first time I heard about it was through the video game stuff. So if anything, I think we should view them going after game devs as a form of spreading awareness. When it hits headlines it makes it clear just how important it is to not use it in other contexts.
...And Johnson & Johnson.
The red cross sign has a very specific meaning and protection under international law. They don't want the symbol to be used outside of the agreed uses because they don't want that meaning, and consequently the protection it affords, to get muddled.
They also don't like when a red cross is used on a random first aid kit in the real world.
What about on a country's flag?
Everyone is betting Tonga will not get itself into a war.
But if it hypothetically happened, I assume they would be pressured to use an alternative war flag by the international community.
On a more serious note, applying international laws against sovereign states is always more complicated than to enforce them against individuals and organizations operating inside of signatory states.
Just start labeling health packs with the Swiss flag. Problem solved. 😌
That's how it often is.
Or the same thing in green.
It is the Swiss flag... Because of Geneva and their pesky Conventions which they FORCED on everyone with their ARMY KNIVES
It's color-inversed and the countries flag was there first.
I think they were worried about their branding being associated with violence. In the 90s, there was a ton of anti-video game propaganda branding it as violent garbage that was corrupting our children.
Ironically, video games are very good at conditioning human responses to iconography. So despite the Red Cross’ hostility, video games still succeeded in conditioning a lot of people to instantly associate plus signs (any color) with health.
Its pretty obvious to me.
The red cross, red crescent and red crystal emblems provide protection for military medical services and relief workers in armed conflicts.
Under no circumstance is it acceptable to create a situation where something could be mistakenly identified as being associated with the Red Cross. If it appears in the game it might appear on a publicly visible computer screen, poster, TV, etc and thats not acceptable.
i think it has to do with trademarking law
if enough people use is to mean other stuff they can lose their trademark
edit: i looked it up and its called genericize
