I included a screen shot of RTIC's Second Amendment Facebook post.Gentlemen,
I’d like to ask you to consider some common-sense restrictions on advertising and product design.
For instance, what citizen really needs 259 cans of ice-cold beer?
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, about 88,000 people die every year because of alcohol (https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-healt ... statistics).
In a nation of 325 million people, you could argue that’s an insignificant number. Until, that is, you or a loved one are massacred on the highway from either the direct assault of a flood of beer or by a driver whose only misdeed was a few too many.
Yet, you advertise your Tundra 350 can pack away 259 cans of beer, and it doesn’t even have childproof latches!
At nearly 300 can capacity, there is only one way to describe the Tundra 350.
It’s a high capacity beer magazine.
Beer causes more deaths than firearms. In fact, check out the FBI stats at https://ucr.fbi.gov. Gun related violence is dropping. Rape in on the increase, but I don’t think the FBI tracks the effect of beer goggles. I’m not saying there isn’t a connection with 259 can beer coolers and beer goggles. There might be, and I don’t want to marginalize any form of violence. I just have no data to make the case one way or the other.
Of course, the overwhelming majority of your customers are law-abiding, peaceful, mature citizens.
You’re in great company. Lots of wonderful firms can say the same thing. Outfits like Smith & Wesson, Colt, Ruger, Springfield, Glock, Sig Sauer, and many others.
The NRA, in fact, can say the same thing of its membership. The NRA does not condone violence and injury any more than Yeti does—even though you sell child friendly high capacity beer magazines. The NRA doesn’t sell guns. They safeguard the teeth in the Bill of Rights, but they do so non-violently with the First Amendment. Just like their advertisements say, they are freedom’s safest place.
If your partnership with the NRA isn’t profitable, I’d advise you to discontinue it, but I would never advise dropping ties to any civil rights organization without being clear about your motives.
Please do something to signal your continuing support of freedom in America. You know, like RTIC did. Your stockholders might not like the loss of sales, otherwise.
Lots of big companies don't understand their image isn't something crafted with spreadsheets. Could be Yeti is just another tone-deaf company when it comes to the implications of their decisions.