MADISON, N.C. — Following an increase in sales, Bushmaster Firearms International will begin selling advertisements on their .223 caliber AR-15 rifle, the same gun model in the Aurora, Oregon, and Newtown mass shootings of 2012. The first advertisers to put their logos on the AR-15 are toy maker Fisher Price and restaurant chain Pizza Hut.
Already one of the most popular sporting rifles in the nation, Bushmaster’s parent company the Freedom Group, plans to use money made from advertising sales to make bigger and better guns.
“Since mass murderers’ gun of choice is the AR-15 rifle, it has allowed us to expand the Bushmaster brand into advertising,” explained Freedom Group spokeswoman Jessica Kallam. “The added income from selling advertising space will be used to create more effective weapons, which will help us maintain our status as ‘top gun’ in mass shootings.”
Despite some companies’ reluctance to advertise with Bushmaster, Fisher-Price and Pizza Hut are spending millions of dollars in advertising to promote their brands on the AR-15 rifle.
Fisher-Price plans on using their advertising on AR-15 rifles to promote a new line of toy rifles that shoot rubber bullets and come in four different colors. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut sees advertising on Bushmaster’s popular rifle as a chance to separate itself from other large pizza chains, such as Domino’s and Little Caesar’s.
There is no word yet on how the visual design of these advertisements on the AR-15 will appear, but Kallam says that Bushmaster may have to make the guns larger in order to fit Pizza Hut’s “Buy One, Get One Free” meat lovers discount offer.
