Gun Safety Advocates Aim Messages at ‘Paranoid Masculinity’

Gun advertising once evoked groups of hunters and father-son trips into the great outdoors. But over the last 40 years, the weekend sportsmen demographic shrunk as a marketing target for brands such as riflemaker Winchester. Now gunmakers have moved away from the wholesome images of unwrapping a rifle from under the Christmas tree. That advertising has been replaced by increasingly darker messages about the benefits of armed self-protection against home invaders and an emphasis on patriotism amid the perceived danger of an eroding constitutional right to arms. Through it all are mocking hints that a prospective gun owner’s masculinity is at stake. While those messages have been gaining speed for decades, they've switched gears to social media as firearms manufacturers have adapted to changing times. In response, communities, activists and congressional representatives have started pushing back. “There are already 400 million guns in our country. The gun market is overly saturated. But these manufacturers need more and more gun sales to drive profits,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization inspired to action by the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. “So in many cases, they turn to fearmongering to gin up sales or pitch aggressive marketing that is overly militaristic, masculine and anti-government. It’s a far cry from the responsible hunter and sportsman marketing of a generation ago.” Moms Demand Action, along with Students Demand Action, is an affiliate of Everytown, a gun violence prevention organization. Working with its network of nearly 10 million supporters, the organization has filed several complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, citing deceitful and predatory practices used by Smith & Wesson and Daniel Defense, two leading gun manufacturers. (Neither manufacturer responded to a request for comment by time of publication.) Everytown and MDA’s complaint against Daniel Defense claims the manufacturer is violating the FTC Act, which prohibits "false and deceptive advertising." MDA contends that ads for Daniel Defense's AR-15 unfairly imply that its products are suitable for use by civilians in "offensive, combat-like missions." The FTC complaint also cites “violent and militaristic imagery appealing particularly to the thrill-seeking and impulsive tendencies of susceptible teens and young men” and points to the consequences, such as school shootings. The complaint was sparked by the May 24 school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, when an 18-year-old shooter used a Daniel Defense AR-15 style M4 V7 rifle to kill 19 children and two teachers, and injure 17 more children. MDA’s complaint against Smith & Wesson claims that it used deceptive marketing to associate its weapons with those of the U.S. military in an attempt to raise its profile. A follow-up to this complaint added that the company was using influencers to tout its products, flouting the FTC’s rules against advertising on social media. With pro-gun influencers, posts might show them posing with their guns or using them. Plugging loopholes While Everytown has relied on the unassailable image of moms to press the public and government officials to curtail the use of firearms, the use of motherhood goes both ways. Indeed, relying on influencer marketing has become a common way for gun companies to skirt FTC rules and restrictions. "Glock moms" have gained prominence in promoting the sale of high-powered semi-automatic weapons. Online magazine Air Mail recently put the spotlight on Charissa Littlejohn, who runs a gun-holster company in California and has more than 350,000 Instagram followers. A recent post featured a wide array of Taran Tactical Innovations firearms and magazine extensions. While the post wasn't listed as paid, the more than 5,000 likes it got served as a strong endorsement of the brand. In July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning the marketing of guns to minors by manufacturers and others in the firearms industry. The law, which attracted legal challenges by gun rights groups immediately after passing, is aimed at weapons manufacturers accused of flouting the rules created by platforms such as Facebook, Google and YouTube. Those online players block ads that overtly promote the sale of guns on their sites. Still, there is no prohibition for user reviews or hobbyist chats that recommend gun sales. Everytown released a report in August detailing how online spaces like YouTube provided not only extremist ideological motivation for the white supremacist mass shooter in Buffalo, NY, in May, but also the tactical and technical know-how to carry out his attack. Agency Leo Burnett worked with Change the Ref on its ‘The Lost Class’ campaign to shine a spotlight on the 3,044 high school graduates who didn’t get to see graduation day due to gun violence. “For too long, companies like YouTube have given a platform to content that goes far beyond practical and safe firearms training for gun owners, and instead provides instructional content to illegally modify weapons, build ghost guns and train in offensive firearms tactics,” said Justin Wagner, senior director of investigations at Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. “Social media companies must do their part to disarm hate, and that starts with enforcing their own firearm guidelines on their platforms.” Gun brands are advertising now more than ever and have found their success lies in the margins: A narrowly defined, enthusiastic demographic can find gun marketing appeals in gun magazines, on specialized sites and, yes, on social media. That is, until recently. In mid-September, a dozen Democratic U.S. senators led by Richard Blumenthal, Edward J. Markey and Chris Murphy signed a letter calling on FTC chairperson Lina Khan to investigate and consider regulating “unfair and deceptive” advertising by gunmakers. Specifically citing Daniel Defense and the mass shooting in Uvalde, the letter echoes pleas made by Everytown. “The industry regularly and routinely makes false and misleading representations about firearm safety and unfairly exploits children and teenagers through unfair and deceptive marketing practices, including targeting teenagers, particularly young men, with advertising for military-style weapons,” the senators wrote. “Time and again, these practices have had deadly consequences.” Fighting advertising with advertising For Manuel and Patricia Oliver, the battle began Feb. 14, 2018, when their son Joaquin was killed along with 14 of his fellow students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Not long after, the organization Change the Ref was born. Through it, the Olivers work with ad agencies including Leo Burnett to create “strategic urban art interventions” that will sway public sentiment and “reduce the influence of the NRA on the electoral process on the federal level,” Manuel Oliver said. (Leo Burnett did not reply to a request for comment by time of publication.) Manuel Oliver often speaks of his son in the present tense, inspired by the activist soul of Joaquin, who was only 17 when he was killed. In fact, Change the Ref is named for a bit of wisdom the teen imparted a couple of weeks before he was murdered. He’d gotten into a dispute with a referee in a basketball game where it seemed like he was siding with the other team, and as a result, Joaquin was kicked out. “We will never get a fair game with that guy,” he had said. “We need to change the ref.” After the shooting, the Olivers were talking with their friends about the NRA's unfair advantage and were reminded of Joaquin’s analysis. So long as the NRA had a chokehold on American politics, they’d never get a fair chance at regulating the gun industry. To that end, Change the Ref has become something of a creative factory, with artist and musician collaborations and audacious stunts. Manuel Oliver happens to be an artist himself, having created a billboard image with Joaquin's face accompanied by calls to action and an interactive performance called the Walls of Demand. However, Change the Ref is perhaps most famous for its campaign "The Lost Class," which was created with Leo Burnett Chicago and aired during the 2021 Super Bowl. The ad swept the Grand Clio awards, winning in four categories: direct, experience/activation, integrated campaign and print. The Publicis Groupe agency also won a Black Cube honor at the 101st ADC Annual Awards, which is part of The One Club for Creativity. Executed in two parts, the stunt appeared to dupe David Keene, two-time NRA president, and John Lott, an economist and gun rights activist, into giving graduation speeches at the fictional, and ironically named, James Madison University. Each man was unaware the other had been invited and blithely “rehearsed” a speech to empty chairs that represented the students lost to gun violence that year. The effect, as these gun industry leaders spoke to the lost souls about their futures, was bone-chilling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ZZ1REoqsU&t=28s But was it effective? According to Leo Burnett, the ad reached 50 million impressions, received a full segment on The Rachel Maddow Show and garnered 41,000 signatures in support of a petition on Change.org demanding universal background checks. However, on an emotional level, Manuel Oliver believes the case was made to the wider public. “At the end of the day, it's about my son and the rest of the victims,” he said. “Slowly, one campaign at a time, we will reach that point where brands will understand that you can also have financial success by being part of this. This is a Super Bowl commercial. The quality of the production, the message, the importance of the message, the meaningful side that we are addressing of the time. It's such an important thing to put out there.”

Branding

Gun Safety Advocates Take Aim at Firearm Marketing They Say Stokes Paranoia

Social media stunts that skirt platform bans against the marketing of weaponry represent a large target

Cat Weaver

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Cat Weaver