NASCAR bans gun ads - Immediately faces backlash

It seems as though every organization is under the microscope for criticism these days. It wasn't long ago that Dick's Sporting goods (the largest sporting goods retailer in USA) took a stance to cease sales of many types of firearms and was immediately met with hashtags, boycotts, and eventually a loss in consumers who do have other choices.

However, you don't have to venture very far into a Dick's sporting goods to understand what the political leanings of a vast majority of their customer base is which begs the question: "what were they thinking?"

While there are a lot of other factors that could be attributed to the downfall, Dick's stock value dropped and sales slipped. Dick's has pretty decent management so they have still managed to be successful. However, they have kept their mouths shut about guns since then.

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Now I don't care what your standpoint on guns is, that is not the point of writing this. Personally I am a gun-toting pro personal liberty kinda dude. However, the point of all this is more of a business angle, rather than a political one.

I want you to try to think of one particular sport whose fans are likely the most conservative-leaning of any sport in the entire universe... what sport is that? Well, if you didn't think of NASCAR i would be curious to know what it is because I have been to a NASCAR event and there is no denying it.

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NASCAR has banned advertising by firearms manufacturers who show firearms in their ads. There are still a large number of sponsors that sell guns and even the NRA as well as the armed forces are a sponsor of some of the races. It just again begs the question of "What are they thinking?"

There are already mass calls for boycoting NASCAR and to cease all purchases of merchandise.

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This decision is particularly stupid when you consider that the popularity of NASCAR has been dwindling over the past several years anyway. So what better way to improve this situation than to choose a hot-topic political-viewpoint and appear to choose what you know to be the opposite of what your remaining fanbase holds?

When i see this sort of stuff I wonder how it is that the CEO (who makes around $10 million a year) is able to keep his job. It seems quite simple to me: Know your audience and cater to them as much as possible. No matter what you do, never do something that you should be very aware is going to insult the hell out of them.

This forum is a prime example of the outrage the remaining fanbase is feeling right now.

Personally, I don't give a damn about NASCAR. I find a sport where people go round and round in a circle to be exceptionally boring. I just think that this was an exceptionally stupid move on NASCAR's part. What were they hoping to accomplish?