NASCAR Goes Anti-Gun, Bans Black Rifle Ads
Russ Chastain 08.27.19
Well, here we go. Millions of NASCAR fans are about to get angry and boycott them! Well they should, but will they… or will they keep on feeding their money to NASCAR? What the heck is Russ jabbering on about? The fact that some advertisers who wish to purchase advertising from NASCAR are having their ads rejected because their guns look too mean. And this comes months after the advertising company approached many gun-related companies about advertising with NASCAR.
K-Var, a company self-described as “a premier supplier of high quality products for the outdoor and shooting sports industries,” recently reported in their blog that their ad was rejected by NASCAR four months after it was submitted.
From K-Var’s post:
In March and April 2019, several firearms retailers and manufacturers were contacted by National Event Publications, Official media sales agent for the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NASCAR, PGA, NHRA, & USA Today Lifestyle. The pitch was to buy advertising in the official program for the last 26 races of the season. K-Var opted to advertise, as did at least 16 other manufacturers or retailers including CZ-USA, Beretta, Daniel Defense, and others. The deadline to have our artwork submitted for approval was April 19, 2019.
Then, on August 19, 2019 (four months later) we were contacted by National Event Publications with the following message:
“We just heard from NASCAR on a number of gun related ads and unfortunately, due a gradual shift in NASCAR’s position on guns, these ads must be edited/changed—especially those that are depicted as assault-style rifles/sniper rifles. NASCAR is still open to some of the less controversial gun accessories, concealed carry, or classes.”
Ballistic Magazine reports that after reading K-Var’s post they went searching for more bans and found an Instagram post from gunmaker Dark Storm Industries informing their fans that NASCAR had rejected their ad, again citing a “gradual shift” that is apparently not gradual at all.
Dark Storm decided to challenge the decision by adding a large bar across the ad to obscure the MSR it contained. Not surprisingly, NASCAR rejected that one as well. Per Dark Storm:
NASCAR decided to turn their back on their customer base, joining the likes of Yeti, Dick’s and Under Armour. We were approached by a NASCAR publication eager to earn our business, but after submitting our ad it was immediately rejected, stating that we cannot depict ‘assault weapons’ … whatever those are. We resubmitted the ad after adding a large ‘CENSORED’ bar over the rifle, with a tag reading ‘This publication rejected our ad.’ This too was rejected by NASCAR. They said they did not like that we called them out. We resubmitted a third time, with a tag line reading ‘Visit www.Dark-Storm.com to find out why!’ This was again rejected. They did not like the words ‘FIND OUT WHY.’
As we have learned, NASCAR has made a ‘gradual shift’ but this doesn’t seem very gradual to us. It seems as though NASCAR has turned their back on the overwhelming majority of their fan base in the most embarrassing way possible.
NASCAR seems to be forgetting their major fan base: Regular, down-to-earth people. The kinds of people who smoke the cigarettes and drink the beer they’ve advertised. And the kinds of people who buy guns and love them, and are fed up with people trying to infringe their rights even more.
Gradual shift? Not so much. Seems pretty abrupt from here.
Buh bye, NASCAR.
