We all know the phenomenon of music videos being made in multiple versions, usually a "clean" one for mass showing and another raunchier one for the real market.

I was just watching a late-night video program (Rage, in Australia) and noticed one of Madonna's videos (I think it was "Crazy For you", but I had the sound turned off so I couldn't tell) appeared to have been censored.

Viewers of cheap (and probably bootlegged) VCDs will be quite familar with a form of picture distortion commonly called "macroblocking" in which sections of the picture appear to be "chunky", as if viewed via extreme digital magnification.

This is the effect (also called "mosaic-ing") that appears to have been applied to this video. I think it was because she was singing in a bar and there were (shock, horror) ads for alcoholic products originally visible behind her.

Video censorship gives a weird impression of a society. I also noticed such censorship in hip-hop bands (especially, due to the usual nature of their subject matter). Fro instance, a marijuana symbol half-censored so the actual symbol was not clear, but still the outline of the shape was perfectly understandable). Or, more dopily,the recent song titled "Gangsta Lovin'" which featured in the beginning of the video, three girls in (ahem) tight T-shirts, on which was printed the name of the artist, then the word "in", then (presumably) the title of the song - like a credit sequence. Except with the final T-shirt mosaiced, it made no sense at all.

/end rant

I hate censorship...my way of dealing with something I don't like is to just not watch it, but I believe original content shouldn't be altered....that's my Generic answer ;)

Maybe it was content censorship.  

Let's face it, though.  Products are placed in movies and videos and their placement is intentional.  They're thinly veiled commercials.  With that in mind, a show sponsered by, say, Pepsi, may be sensitive to Coca Cola placement in movies and videos.  A second off-the-top of my head guess; maybe whoever is presenting the video feels no product placement display without payment.  The fact that it's an alcoholic product being fuzzed out might be the answer, though...

Rage wouldn't censor it:

1. The ABC is a free-to-air government funded broadcaster.
2. They even show full-frontal nudity in videos (e.g. that one by Massive Attack with the stripclub dancer) so a little alcohol shouldn't scare them.

It was obviously censored by the USA source, probably Madonna's record company.

Oh, and the video playing at the moment is her in "noir" mode, puffin' on a fag and generally causing havoc with her lungs. Oh, and Christopher Walken is floating above her bed like that Fatboy Slim video "Weapon of Choice"...

Edit: Ironically, my word for cigarette got censored LOL

It annoys me too.  I think part of it, to me, is who gets to decide?  I don't know about now--but look back to the 80's--MTV refused to play "Living in Sin" by Bon Jovi--anyone ever see it?  Not too much "sin" in it, if ya ask me.  Sure, the couple, not married, were making out pretty good. Yes, they were having sex.   But I didn't see anything all that offensive.  Oh wait--the church didn't like the religious references.  ::)

And then there was Motley Crue's "You're All I Need".  MTV refused that one too.  But, from my viewpoint, with the exception of one bloody hand scene, not a great deal worse than Aerosmith's "Janie's Got A Gun".  True, the storyline was different--but the end result was the same. Yes, it was a violent story.  But the video wasn't all that horrible, and again, I didn't find it offensive.  But it was "just too violent".  God knows every nutsy boyfriend out there was going to kill his girlfriend over it.  ::)

Now, what I find "offensive" will disagree with another person's.  But does that mean anyone who thinks like ME should suffer for not agreeing with somebody ELSE, and their opinion of "decent"?  
What if I dislike the trampy chicks you see in videos nowadays?  Should they be taken off TV because I don't want to see quite so much of Brittney or Christina?  I don't think so...

I can always turn it off, and so can they.

Okay...done with my rant too.  ;D

How about the Madonna video many years ago"Justify My Love"where she was kissing a woman :o ;D.That wasn't censored.They showed that on MTV and ABC News.Did anyone see that video by any chance? -howard-