A few days ago, A Girl and Her Gun posted this as her status on Facebook:
Got a request to post about a site(I have received several recently, some are good). It’s a gun range and the tagline is fun and safety. Big long section on attention to detail and saefty. The site has a host of half naked chicks ALL with their guns in the air and ALL with fingers on the trigger. Anyone want to guess what my answer was??
Like AGirl, I don’t care a bit how a woman chooses to make her living, as long as it’s legal and harms no one else. However, I agree with her that the image of women handling firearms dangerously or carelessly isn’t one I want to promote and it sure isn’t one I want to encourage. That’s something I’ve worked against for more than ten years now, after all. The old joke about how guys won’t even notice the firearm in the picture—let alone what the woman’s trigger finger is doing—just doesn’t cut it for me. I wouldn’t want to be associated with any company that pictures dangerous behavior in their ads.
But there’s something else I wanted to say about this. Two things, really. First, I’m a capitalist and a believer in both free speech and a free market. When marketing offends or simply fails to reach its intended audience, the audience should simply walk away. And for the most part, we do. I don’t have a problem with this at all. It’s the way things should work in a free society.
My second point relates directly to my first: I avoid buying guns or gun-related products from companies that use near-naked, “sex sells” marketing because such ads make it clear that the company does not want my business, or the business of any other woman. Oh, they’re happy enough to sell stuff to us, if we’re willing to buy it from them. But they aren’t after our business. Marketing efforts like this just show that the company marketing managers don’t believe women are part of the gun-buying public, and that they don’t care whether we buy from them or not. If they did want our dollars, they would tone down the pure sex sale, and go instead for an approach that could appeal to all of us.
When a company isn’t after our business, why should we give it to them?
Does this mean that the photo spread I’m working on of me on the range in a loin cloth to sell my training services to the ladies should be abandoned?!?!?!?!? Darn!!! Thought I had a sure winner there!!! 🙂
I think most women are fairly demanding customers. They are far beyond the “I want a pink gun” stage and are looking for products that truly meet their wants,needs or desires. And the sales guys that make the mistake of treating any of the women I know is a “is this the little woman” attitude – well god help ’em.
Good advice though . . . . but I was really looking forward to the photo shoot . . . .
I’ve actually written letters to a couple of companies that use such advertising, explaining why I won’t be buying their products. To date, not one of them has even responded to my letters – which further demonstrates they don’t want my business. So be it. There are enough manufacturers of excellent guns and gear who behave in ways that demonstrate they DO want my business.
I wonder, though, how many of these companies would consciously write marketing plans that say “We want to use a marketing strategy based upon the objectification of women, and we’re okay with excluding that segment of gun-buyers from our customer base.”
And yes, what Bill said above. You don’t make a gun or gear into a “women’s product” just by painting it pink. I have an IWB holster that sits in my drawer because I bought it before I knew better and its shape is such that there’s simply no place I can attach it to my body that’s comfortable. Painting it pink won’t make it better fit the contours of my body.
Again I agree whole-heartedly. I will not use a vendor or service if they feel they must advertise in such a way. Would be great if a few guys would chime in and realize that the sex-sells ads actually insult THEIR intelligence…
I’m not going to lie and say that an ad with a pretty lady with a gun doesn’t get my attention. But yeah, it’s easy to take “Check out our good looking gun being held by this model” to “Hey guys! Look at we got here!”. I tend to try to look beyond the slick advertising, with or without provocative females, and look at the product or service that’s being offered. Good companies don’t tend to need the eye candy.
While we’re on the subject, how do you all feel about the images put out by Oleg Volk? He has quite a few that feature kind-of-clad women with firearms, but his models at least know how to hold the gun safely.