Gun commercial during Super Bowl?

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strat81

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How would the country react if a major handgun manufacturer (S&W, Glock, Ruger, Taurus, Springfield, HK, Sig) aired a gun commercial during the Super Bowl? Assume that financing was not an issue and the company was able to buy ad time.

The content of the ad features a cop drawing on a bad guy, a mother & daughter plinking at the range, an IPSC or IDPA match, an elderly person drawing on an intruder, and a young woman using a CCW to defend herself.


And after halftime, there's ANOTHER (!!!) gun ad, this time selling AR-15s (S&W, Colt, Stag, RRA, LMT, Olympic, Del-Ton, Bushmaster). Situations would be a cop during a violent standoff, mother & daughter plinking (pink furniture?), a three-gun match, a middle-aged or elderly person hunting, and a minority shopkeeper defending their store during a riot.

What would we hear on Monday? These would not be a funny ads, but they will NOT show gratuitous violence or bloodlust.
 
I think there would be some impulse gun sales the next day, as well as some frothing at the mouth from the MSM... I'd be kinda nice...:D
 
Well i've posted this before on another thread but here goes:

In my Introduction to Advertising class the "Terrible Four" are tobacco, alcohol, gambling and guns. They are referred to as dangerous and almost evil advertising.

I spoke with the professor and asked him why firearms were "terrible". He said : "Well think about those who have had a loved one killed accidentally by guns, it would be offensive to them." This answer was definitely less than satisfactory but I did not argue with him at the moment. I plan to go to his office hours and clear some things up.
 
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In my Introduction to Advertising the "Terrible Four" are tobacco, alcohol, gambling and guns. They are referred to as dangerous and almost evil advertising.
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Alcohol advertising is stronger now than ever. Hard liquor is finally being advertised on television, something that never used to happen. As for gambling, back when I lived in NYC, I recall TONS of ads for the NY Lottery, Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, and The Borgata casinos.
 
I did not say there are banned in any way, but media outlets get to choose who advertises with them.

In a general sense, those four are the most common ones that are regulated.

Would Nickelodeon accept a bid for advertising from Marlboro? No.
 
In my Introduction to Advertising the "Terrible Four" are tobacco, alcohol, gambling and guns. They are referred to as dangerous and almost evil advertising.
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Tobacco and guns, maybe.

Alcohol and gambling, most definitely not.

The problem I see with advertising guns, opposed to those other items, is that guns are not somethign that people are going out to buy every day. They are not a disposable goods.

And it isn't too unrealistic anyways. I see sporting goods stores promoting guns during sport games all the time.
 
I did not say there are banned in any way, but media outlets get to choose who advertises with them.
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Tobacco TV ads are banned in the US. There's a ton of other regulations on them as far as sport sponsorships (i.e., the "Marlboro Car"), billboards, and even point-of-sale merchandising. I think magazine ads are also restricted in some way, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

The problem I see with advertising guns, opposed to those other items, is that guns are not somethign that people are going out to buy every day. They are not a disposable goods.
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While I understand your point, I disagree. Cars and appliances are advertised constantly. So are building materials, and those are more "permanent" than cars or appliances. Disposable or not, penetration for cars and appliances is pretty high, that is, there aren't many fence sitters. I'd bet there are a fair share of people that, if they saw an ad, would say "Hmmm, maybe I should get a gun." Considering that guns seem to be a topic to be discussed behind closed doors, such fence sitters may not ever be prompted with the impetus to buy them.
 
Alcohol advertising is stronger now than ever. Hard liquor is finally being advertised on television, something that never used to happen. As for gambling, back when I lived in NYC, I recall TONS of ads for the NY Lottery, Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, and The Borgata casinos.
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Tobacco TV ads are banned in the US. There's a ton of other regulations on them as far as sport sponsorships (i.e., the "Marlboro Car"), billboards, and even point-of-sale merchandising. I think magazine ads are also restricted in some way, but I'm not 100% sure of that.
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Are we now just talking about restrictions on advertising? In the context of what is considered malevolent in the adv. industry, tobacco and alcohol are relevant. But not whether or not it exists.

My original statement was just to point out the place in which firearms are put in, from the perspective of advertising as an industry in general.
 
wouldnt it be great though? alot of people watch the superbowl (or so i hear anyway!)
 
The other option might not be for a manufacturer, selling a specific firearm or product range, but for a shooting organization to run an ad.

According to Wikipedia, thirty seconds of advertising time costs $2.6 million... and the NRA has 4.3 million members. So if everybody chips in a buck, we could buy ourselves a nice sixty-second spot just to talk about how fun, safe, and rewarding a family trip to the old shooting range can be...

No handguns, no evil black rifles, no dead deer, no police, no soldiers... Just mom, dad, grandpa and the kids plinking away at bulleye's with pair of .22's... Have somebody with a nice grandfatherly voice read some copy about family togetherness, and have the final seconds be of some beaming 9-year old girl with a smile the size of the Grand Canyon, as she hold's up her NRA Junior Marksmanship merit badge.

The Brady Bunch would go nuclear.
 
Bottom line: The cost of one commercial during the Super Bowl would bust most every gunmaker's annual advertising budget.

Besides, I'd never see it. I'm usually at the range during SuperBowl XXXXVVIM whatever anyway. It's a pretty quiet place.
 
Cars and appliances are advertised constantly.
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That's called branding. The advertisers aren't really trying to sell you something now. They're just keeping their name in the spotlight.

In fact a very high proportion of advertising at the national level is branding.

Most advertising meant to actually convince you to go buy a toaster right now is local. You've seen the commercials, you know what I am talking about.
 
The context would be everything. The NRA idea is good. Something along the lines of "Today's junior plinking champion is tomorrow's soldier" may work also. How many current soldiers started out plinking with dad or grandpa? I think it's do-able, but remember: the Media is owned and run by liberals, as the Move-On ad in the Times proved. The commercial could be denied before it ever left the ground, likely after the money was collected.
 
IMHO, you wouldn't want to have an ad focusing solely on the self defense aspects, simply so as not to reinforce the guns=violence view in fence sitters, though it would be good to be part of a commercial.

Along that vein, I really don't think you'd want an ad saying "Today's junior plinking champion is tomorrow's soldier" . Sorry, but in the current political environment, how many people who don't already own guns would want to raise their children to be soldiers?

CR
 
i can imagine HK's add

Scenes of HK firearms and the factory go in a slide show fashion

"for decades police departments and elite special forces have chosen our weapons. crafted with percision, and finished by hand, Heckler and Koch firearms represent the finest in modern defense technology. but you cant have them.
( black screen, with white text and voice over reading)
Heckler and Koch, Because you suck, and we hate you"
 
"Well think about those who have had a loved one killed accidentally by guns, it would be offensive to them."
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Everything is offensive to someone. What if my uncle choked on a Frito and died?
 
i can imagine HK's add
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posted from http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=310272&page=2
I can't wait to see the HK 416 ads, (in comically fake german accent) Ve are telling you vermin people to buy our gewehr, Ve are broke, because der Veakling Government vil not buy our guns and are lacking in de Deutchmarks. Ve have dismanteled key features so you stupid people that suck vil not put your eye out, and bleed your stupid peasant blood on our fine rifles.

Ve are broke, buy our rifles you stupid vermin
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:evil:


I can think of a few gun company commercials where a firearm wouldn't even shown, more designed for brand recognition. Say for instance one for S&W, scene 1, a well dressed lady is walking to her car in a dark parking garage, looks around nervously, as the S&W logo scrolls as a reflection in a puddle, she then looks confident and hops in her car. Second scene is a pair of police officers pulling up to a house, door wide open, alarm blaring, they nervously get out of the car, and then with a flash of determination as the logo rolls across a reflection in the window of the squad car they run up to the door. the end would be a static logo as someone says "depended on by citizens, and law enforcement the world over, carry the legend, Smith and Wesson"
 
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