As I said before...
Make the picture one of Jesse Abbate or Julie Golob tearing it up on a USPSA field course and you've got my attention. Heck, make it one of "Carley" but put her on the range with a good instructor running her through an El Prez. That's awesome. Put her in a low-cut top and a mini skirt, holding an AK like it's a marital aid she's not too thrilled about trying...yeah, that's not cool.
It isn't (for me) AT ALL about it being "shocking" or "wrong." I don't really have morals that are shocked by sexuality of nearly any flavor, and don't particularly feel my kids need to be sheltered from the form of the human body. (Heck, the older ones each attended the births of their younger siblings -- so...there are few mysteries in that realm.)
And it will be a cold day in Sheol before I side with any movement to pass a law against ... well, pretty much anything.
My objections are more of a matter of context and appropriateness. Not Victorian mock-puritanism revival mores against "inappropriate" behavior, but the realistic relationship between the items appearing in the ad.
Jessie Abbate is very attractive. She shoots very, very well. Show her running her M&P in a competition or training exercise, and that engages me in the scene. It make sense. It tells a story that has some relation to what I might need to know about the gun, or what I might do with it.
Or do a Khar arms ad, with a woman in a nightgown, barricading in her bedroom, with 911 on the line, preparing to defend herself with her weapon. Great! There's the gun in its setting.
Put some model in a bikini, holding a pistol and I'm affronted by a nonsensical, context-less scene. Might as well have a beautiful Colt 1911 with that deep gorgeous bluing, sitting carefully laid out
on a platter of fried chicken! Oooooh YUMMMY, I like chicken!
It is mindless, stupid. It is a sorry attempt to draw my attention in a cheap way that isn't pertinent to the subject of the ad. It is jarring, not attracting. And it is a clear message of what is expected of the gun buying public. Like a side-show barker telling the audience, "
Ok, so I'm going to pull a little slight of hand here, and you're going to be fooled. And you'll buy my product because you're stupid rubes, easily led."
Trick my eye -- draw me, suck me in and I'll stand there like a cow letting it happen. "
Hey...purty gurl...dur, dur!"