Ad agency Preacher's United Rifle Association anti-gun agitprop (courtesy adage.com)

I publish The Truth About Guns, a pro-2A gun blog. If I was the publisher of, say, Ad Age, I wouldn’t take a political stance on any issue. If the advertising community created some politically minded work like, say, a campaign for gun control, I’d cover it. Fairly. But I wouldn’t create the campaign. Obviously. But then I’m not the publisher of Ad Age, who felt compelled to write this . . .

Orlando. Las Vegas. Sutherland Springs. Sandy Hook. Benton. It. Keeps. Happening. Mass shootings occur with horrifying frequency in the U.S., and Congress seems hell-bent on ignoring them. Which is why we’re reaching out to the creative community to produce work that confronts the issue of gun violence head on. This may be one of the world’s most difficult briefs: Tackle the gun-fatality epidemic in a way that could help lead to a solution.

Our hope is to get real sponsors on board to support the most promising work. Perhaps in 2018 we can all do some good.

Shut. The. F. Up. Seriously Ad Age, there’s enough anti-gun agitprop out there without you asking for more in a transparent attempt to polish your [imaginary] halo. To make ad industry whores feel good about whoring.

And what the Hell is this? A “sample” pro-gun control campaign from the ironically indeed blasphemously named Austin ad agency Preacher that tries to undermine America’s oldest civil rights organization? I’m not the biggest NRA fan, but this trojan horse ad campaign is seriously whack.

The NRA’s descent from a respectable organization of marksmen into a lobbying shill for gun manufacturers has splintered its member base. Research shows a growing number of NRA members don’t agree with the organization’s current policies, and among the majority of gun owners, the NRA’s policies seem extreme.

Preacher ad agency faux United Rifle Association statement (courtesy adage.com)

Creating a counter-balance to the NRA’s political power and influence is no small task. We will start by chipping away at it bit by bit. Our strategy will be to attract moderate and progressive gun owners, with a more reasonable approach to gun rights and ownership. The result will be uniting disgruntled NRA members, moderate gun owners and disenfranchised public representatives in a place where it is safe to vote their conscience.

A safe space! Which is exactly what America won’t be if anti-gun progressive degrade and destroy Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

Shame on Ad Age‘s self-righteous political pandering to the forces of civilian disarmament. I only hope they don’t have to live with the consequences of their willful ignorance. Then again, they work in anti-gun urban enclaves. So . . . good luck with that!

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47 COMMENTS

    • Two very GLARING points missing from their mission statement:
      1. Owning firearms for personal defense.
      2. Owning firearms as a check on government overreach and loss of liberty.
      See, those are two concepts gun bigots absolutely cannot acknowledge. The moment they concede that there is more to owning a gun than hunting or because you’re a collector of historical memorabilia, all of their ideas proposed as “solutions” fall apart.
      So yeah, if they can’t/won’t acknowledge the need for those two fundamental concepts then they are not welcome at our table.
      🤠

    • You nailed it on the first try.

      Gun ownership does not magically embue one with a love of freedom and liberty. When we encourage “everyone” to become gun owners, we need to do so with our eyes open to the fact that the leftists may enjoy guns, yet still despise freedom. That’s when they form new little clubs like this.

  2. Are they really that clueless as to not know that those of us who are angry with the NRA are angry that they have been too willing to concede?

    • Probably… They don’t do any research or concern themselves with facts. It’s all about their feelings.

    • Pretty much exactly what i was going to write. My next membership of a national gun rights org will probably be gun owners of america. I think my nra 5 year is up this year, but it’s hard to tell since they’ve sent me renewal notices every 3 months since I joined anyway. And also they never sent me the swag they promised when i signed up. Not that i signed up for that, but they just seem to not be genuine.

        • For what, the member benefits? This week they wanted to sell me wine. Last week it was Lifelock credit protection. Previous to that it was life insurance.

          I want National Reciprocity, without the cheap chinese swag.

          • There are plenty of automatic membership benefits that you don’t have to pay for (other than dues). And if you live near a Cabela’s, then you can get a membership this weekend for $35 and get a $25 Cabela’s gift card.

            If you don’t want a $25 Cabela’s gift card, I don’t know why I’m even talking to you. (That part is a joke).

            But I’m pretty sure Cloudbuster was referring to using both organizations to fight for the 2A. NRA does move to the right in response to GOA.

    • A guy asked me how long I was a member of my gun club. I told him how many NRA membership cards I had and that the only reason I joined the NRA was the club requires it. I told him that before I joined the club, I had no use for the NRA because they were too liberal for me.

    • Right you are, sir. There is some stuff I don’t like on NRA. First and foremost it is too soft and Fuddy. I’m joining GOA besides of my NRA membership.

  3. “The NRA’s descent from a respectable organization of marksmen into a lobbying shill for gun manufacturers has splintered its member base.”

    From what I’ve seen this doesn’t work the way these folks seem to think it does.

    So far as I can tell most people who are ticked at the NRA are ticked at the NRA precisely because they think that 1) The NRA are shills who don’t care about the RTKBA as much as they do about money. 2) That the NRA consistently erodes our rights so that they can use “fighting to get them back” as a fundraising mechanism and 3) That the NRA has sold the fuck out in many States.

    In other words, most of the people ticked at the NRA, as far as I can tell are ticked that the NRA isn’t doing enough of the right things. I rather doubt the NRA has or has ever had very many “progressive” gun owners and most of the “moderate” gun owners are the ones still backing the NRA.

    In short I think these people maybe just might be a bit stupid and have no idea what they’re on about.

    • That was my reaction as well (that dissent is mostly from people who don’t think the NRA takes a hard enough line on 2A rights and that they compromise too much).

      • I wouldn’t underestimate their capabilities, Jeremy.

        These people *know* advertising and the power of deception in advertising.

        Look at the name of the organization – ‘United Rifle Association’.

        A direct rip-off of the ‘National Rifle Association’, even the emblem is similar.

        They picked it to *confuse* the readers.

        I’m wary of them already…

    • Gallup polling clearly shows NRA has gone from 40% approvals nationally among all Americas in the 70’s, 80,s, 90’s etc.,to a solid 58% approvals today. A solid majority of the US public approves of NRA. Advertising Age, which in theory are experts on brand image, failure to mention this fact even once is too funny.

      And you are correct. this idea of “splintering” in the NRA is hilariously bogus. Gun owners who want the NRA to take an even more aggressive stance against any gun control are joining more aggressive associations — but most are not leaving the NRA to do so, but joining say GOA as well.

  4. “do some good” – means exactly the OPPOSITE of what they think they will be doing

    “a respectable organization of marksmen” – means politically impotent floor mats who stayed out of the statists’ way and never stood up for a basic human right

  6. MOAR ASTROTURF! It’s all about top-down propaganda with progressives and the Left (which are functionally one and the same).

    If the gun-owning public saw a need for an organization like the one they’re proposing, it would already exist. And it would have been created by actual gun owners, not by some ad agency’s progressive drones.

    Actually, come to think of it, there’s already an organization that supports the “respectful and fair gun legislation” they’re on about. It’s called the Democratic Party. And you can judge for yourself how respectful and fair they want to be to people like you and me.

  7. Sad that they announce this NRA killing organization and they haven’t even bothered to put up a web site. Apparently, they are waiting for “sponsors” to get this off the ground. Where are Soros and Bloomberg when they need them?

  9. If they actually gave a crap about people like they do politics, they’d worry less about a phony “gun-fatality epidemic”–the majority of which are suicides that would happen anyway, the majority of the remainder are gangland slayings that will happen regardless–and instead work on reducing deaths from actual epidemic, like influenza.

    That disease is the cause of approximately 34 million illnesses, some of which resulting in severe consequences like organ failures and amputations, plus anywhere between 12,000 to 56,000 deaths per season. This is a heavy fatality season, by the way.

    But, no, they’d rather exploit people’s ignorance, emotions, politics, and prejudices to advance an agenda that they don’t even care about, but which makes them look good to similar cynical ghouls. What a sad, sick world we live in.

    • There are always going to be a boat load of things that kill more people than “gunz” that are easier to have an impact on. This just shows that the antis either don’t care about people dying or are incredibly stupid.

    • Nice. I wonder how to judo them harder.

      I’m a big fan of curated linkroll feeds with a POV: link, synopsis, you know where they’re coming from yet they’re always honest. Best examples are FARK n Slashdot. FARK color coding is genius. Slashdot’s two line synolsis have been best in the biz for years (decades?)

      – Landing graphic with “We’re *these guys*, not *those guys.*”

      – A couple anchor links to NRA, GOA, 2A foundation n whoever…

      – Maybe a linkroll of just articles n comments fisking what Those Schmucks put out. (Use a filtered link submission feature. People can push their own fisking, articles, n comments.)

      – Need hosting w/ SPAM, DDOS, spoof n code hacking protections. You’ll be a target.

      – I gotta believe there’s mechanisms to sell web page ad space directly: an image or a snippet backed by a link. Bypass the networks.

      That feels almost like a companion site to TTAG. Several commenters here would make excellent link-fiskers. I’d try something like this myself, if I could. I can’t do stuff consistently enough to run something. I’m available when the body cooperates, not when stuff needs doing. Limiting.

  13. TRANSLATION: We want to take ALL semi automatic pistols, rifles, and shotguns away from the people; end the right to self defense. Then Only allow registered, SA revolvers, single shot break over rifles and shotguns and lever action rifles. with storage at police station and only shoot on govt sanctiond (sic) ranges supervised, mental health evaluation, family, friend references, al la aust and uk

  14. Why not mention Waco, Kelly Thomas, Abner Louima, Rodney King, Freddie Gray, Arthur Mcduffie, MLK? Oh right, they want us to trust the police and not question authority.

  16. WELL THEY CAN PLAY THEIR GAMES, AND I CAN PLAY MINE….. hopscotch, Jax, and Mumbly Peg my r favorites

  17. People are getting worked up over very, very little.

    I used to work at an ad agency many, many years ago. Every so often, they would do an in-house campaign with no client specifically to submit to industry award organizations. The entire point was to get a little inexpensive media coverage in the trade press for the agency.

    That’s almost certainly what this is.

  18. A more reasonable approach to gun rights and ownership? You mean like national constitutional carry?

  19. I had a co worker up until recently whom i considered a friend. We were eating lunch one day when he brought up the topic of guns. Now hes a liberal, so i figured i knew where this is going. To my suprise he wanted to learn to shoot.
    Long story short, i took him to the range and let him try a variety of guns. He really liked one of my ars. Offered to buy it. I declined selling it as i just dont like private transfers.
    Thank god i didnt sell it. 2 week later he beat the crap out one of our other coworkers because she was a lesbian. He is 300 lbs. She was at most 110.
    So much for liberal tolerance. He threatened to kill her.
    My point being, when it comes to guns, i dont trust a liberal. I shouldnt have taken him, and from now on if i know your are a liberal, i will not to to a range with you.

  21. That’s odd. For the past twenty-five years or so, this Life Member and the majority of his member friends also ” … don’t agree with the organization’s current policies, and among [that] majority … the NRA’s policies seem [QUISLING] in the extreme. ”

    There you go Ad Age, fixed that for you. You’re welcome.

  23. advertising age fails to mention, even once the following:
    1. US gun murder has declined 65% in 25 years
    2. NRA has gone from 40% approvals among all Americas when it was “a marksmanship association” to 58% in the latest Gallup.
    3. NRA transforming into a HUGE grassroots organization, the largest civil liberties/civil rights group by paid rank and file members in the US — larger than the next seven combined — occurred because the gun control lobby which had said they just wanted “a few regulations,” SHIFTED to adovacy and achieving of total bans (just look at what DC, Chicago, etc laws were)

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