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Originally Posted by Markost
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This blog points out the obvious:
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Not that it matters. You have how many TV shows that help the industry indirectly anyway as Jack Bauer points his HK close enough to a terrorist’s face to read the name.
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(Of course, he forgot to mention that IMFDB helps out, too.
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Anyway, as best I know, there are no laws preventing gun manufacturers from advertising on TV (whether or not network execs
would accept gun manufacturers' money for advertising is another story). I think the more likely explanation is that gun manufacturers have simply never tried to produce or sell TV commercials.
Think about how much it costs to run an advertisement on primetime television. Then think about the size/target demographic of the American gun industry compared to almost any other industry. It wouldn't make sense from a cost-benefit perspective. Even though there are a lot of gun owners in America, guns are still a niche market compared to any other consumer product - cars, computers, cosmetics. There may be 80 million gun owners in America, but there are 300 million people who will always (at some point) be in the market for a new car, a new laptop, some awesome new cologne guaranteed to get them laid, etc. Gun manufacturers are targeting a specific group of people who they know will almost always read gun rags or visit gun sites. Whereas other consumer products manufacturers are constantly competing with each other for the attention of the entire American public.
And I don't know about y'all, but my HDTV almost never gets used for anything besides watching Blu-Rays and playing Xbox360. I watch all of my favorite TV shows (like "Chuck") on Hulu. Most of my friends and acquaintances do the same. At this point, it would make no sense for gun manufacturers to advertise through a dying medium.