The past couple of months in Action Pursuit Games magazine, a company called Nu-Line Industries has been running a series of ads.  These ads depict a scantily clad, third rate model holding Nu-Line's Bruizer Paintgun.  These ads have created quite a stir.  Every month Nu-Line rolls out another 'Bruizer Girl of the Month' for the paintball public to ogle at.  But here's a clue for you Nu-Line.  Give it up.  The slip shod appearance of both the models and the ads themselves give one general impression of the Bruizer Paintgun.  That it is a piece of junk.  Sexy ads might appeal to the urges of the typical APG reader but the ads are nothing more than eye candy and the topic of low conversation among adolescents.  They do little to sell your wares.  Paintball is an extremely quality related sport.  If brand 'X' paintgun gains a reputation as being of poor quality, it won't sell.  The 'My paintgun is better than your paintgun' attitude has long been a part of the sport.  This attitude guides sales as much as anything.  Many buyers make their decisions based on the advise of more experienced players.  This 'advise' is not always based on actual experience, but is rather, the opinion of an outspoken, but possibly misinformed, individuals.  I've seen it over and over again in the newsgroups.  But once that opinion takes hold there is little that can be done to stop it.

    While I do stand morally opposed to the use of sex to sell products.  I will not try to dictate what is good for others.  I will offer a suggestion however.  If you insist on using pretty women to peddle your wares, at least dress them up in paintball gear.  The fact that your ads show women dressed for the street seems to indicate that the Bruizer has no place on the paintball field.  It would not be that much harder to whip up an outfit that at least looks like something a morally challenged woman would wear to a paintball game.  Second, dump the party girls and find models that look more athletic.  Not for a second do your models look like the type of girls who would play paintball.  Rather, they look like the girls you see primping and pouting in the staging area while their boyfriend plays.  The boyfriend, of course, is the guy who drove the Corvette and brought a $1500 Tourney gun to a Rec.ball game.  He spent most of his time in the staging area too, either trying to get his gun working, washing off paint, or just trying to look cool.  You know, a poser, all gear and no game.  But I digress.  If you are gonna sell the product you must sell the dream.  That is, make the buyer believe that he or she can buy a dream by purchasing the product.  With paintball, that dream is universally the dream of being a successful and skilled player.  Nobody is going to delude themselves into buying the dream you are trying to sell.  Nobody is going to convince themselves that by purchasing a Bruizer, beautiful women are going to be attracted to them.  Especially when it is so plain to see that the Bruizer Girls are not the type of girls who play paintball.  This incongruity chaffs at the subconscious like rough sandpaper.  A rational person just cannot connect the two images.

    Last, the setting.  Showing your models in the studio suggests that the Bruizer is not something that anyone would want to be seen in public with.  Try to use a paintball field as the backdrop.  Subtle as it sounds, it is important.  I don't know who is heading up your marketing strategy but I just can't say as I agree with their approach.  Sure, the tasteless ads generate a lot of publicity for your new company.  But is it good publicity?  Do you really want to be thought of as 'the company with the tacky ads.'  Give some long term thought to the impact of your strategy.  Don't let a quick start now lead to a quick death down the road.  If your products are as good as you say, let them speak for themselves, in the field, where it counts.

        And another thing.  Lay off with the shady tactics too.  Suggesting that you have the 'Longest Warranty Available' when your warranty is only one month longer than anyone else's may be essentially correct but we all know it is deceptive.  And saying that your marker has a 4 star rating- Suggesting the star method used by PRCI but really meaning you guys gave it four stars may work with the lawyers but it doesn't hold water with me.  I see right through the sleaze and I don't like what I see.