Saturday, October 31, 2009

The perils of marketing a technical product


I'm sure many readers have encountered this issue. What happens when you're ready to market or advertise a technical product, requiring a certain amount of understanding to appreciate it, but have to leave said advertising or marketing in the hands of non-technical people? The result can frequently be disastrous.

The firearms industry is no exception. I recall Heckler & Koch's infamous catalog cover blooper at the 2007 SHOT Show, which hilariously illustrated cartridges inserted backwards in a pistol's magazine!




The howls of laughter from firearms enthusiasts and hobbyists re-echoed around Internet forums and the blogosphere for months over that mistake.

Now Woolrich, makers of 'tactical' clothing aimed at the law enforcement and law-enforcement-wannabe market, have made a similar slip-up.




As friend R. B. describes the above advertisement in an e-mail:

The one in the foreground is a determined-looking operator with a dapper cop moustache and a menacing glare like someone just bought the last bear claw at the donut shop.

He also has his scope mounted BACKWARDS on his AR.


Now that's going to take some living down!



Peter

7 comments:

Brett said...

The tacticool guy in the background also has his pistol mag in the open-top carrier backwards.

Mikael said...

I went into "find the fault" mode, not scrolling down for the spoiler... and laughed out loud when I noticed the backwards scope.

Hilarious.

Didn't notice the backwards pistol mag though.

Great find Peter. :D

Anonymous said...

Our Mother company makes the Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) and some comms for SOCOM. The marketing piece has a tactical tubby with a BB gun.

Gerry

Billll said...

Somewhere there's another one of these, a big, black cop standing in front of the NYSE, looking tough enough that the AR he was carrying was just an afterthought, with the EOTech red dot on backwards.

Turing word: weedl. This doesn't refer to any of your meds, does it?

Anonymous said...

Billll: The understanding I had with the EOTech is that the outer part of their sights with the battery case and controls can be installed facing either direction onto the inner bit with the optics to accommodate left and right-handed shooters. So for a lefty the optics would face the right way, but it would look as if it were backwards.

Jim

Brett said...

IIRC, that NYPD cop actually responded to someone posting that pic on forum somewhere (Highroad?) and explained that a) He was issued it for the day and DID notice the sight issue, AND reported it; and b) was told not to mess with it at all, the armory would deal with it some other time.

Lew said...

Holy necropost, Batman!

But...am I the only one noticing the dark eyepro worn in combination with NVGs on the second toolbag?