New Ad Highlights How Less Than 10% of NRA Spending Goes Toward Gun Safety, Training and Education, While NRA Spends Millions for NRA Executives to Enjoy Designer Suits, Exotic Trips, Private Jets, Golden Parachutes, and High-Priced Lawyers — Now the NRA Has Declared Bankruptcy
Six-Figure Ad Campaign Includes Cable TV and Digital Ads — Targeted Toward NRA Members and Gun Owners — Encouraging NRA Supporters to “Ditch Their Sticker,” and a Mobile Billboard Repeating the Ad Outside NRA HQ in Fairfax, Virginia
NEW YORK – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund announced a new six-figure TV and digital ad campaign aimed at encouraging NRA members and gun owners to “ditch” the NRA.
The ad campaign will launch tomorrow with cable television ads on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News, and digital ads targeted toward gun owners and NRA members across the country, with a focus on Virginia, where the NRA is headquartered, and battleground states. Coinciding with the launch of TV and digital ads, a mobile billboard playing the ad will circle the NRA’s headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. The mobile billboard will also feature unique creative.
WATCH THE TV AND DIGITAL AD, “STICKER,” HERE.
“Today’s NRA isn’t the organization many Americans grew up with, and today’s NRA members have been fleeced,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “With this ad campaign, we’re showing NRA members where their dues have been going, and we’re reminding lawmakers that the NRA has never been weaker — and the time for action is now.”
“NRA leaders spending members’ dues on luxury goods like yachts and Italian suits and exotic vacations — all while shortchanging gun safety and training programs — makes them more like Bond villains than nonprofit employees,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “The NRA has betrayed its members for decades, turning the organization into a personal piggy bank for its executives and vendors. And through this ad campaign, we’re making sure NRA members know it.”
The ad campaign highlights revelations about extravagant spending and allegations of self dealing among the NRA and its senior executives, which led to a New York Attorney General investigation and lawsuit seeking to dissolve the NRA or levy severe financial penalties, and recently culminated in the NRA declaring bankruptcy.
The TV and digital ads highlight numerous instances of egregious spending by the NRA, including:
- Only 10% of what the NRA spends goes toward safety, education and training;
- The NRA spent more than $274,000 to purchase designer suits for CEO Wayne LaPierre from a Beverly Hills boutique;
- The NRA spent more than $243,000 on LaPierre trips to exotic locales like Hungry, Greece, and the Bahamas, spending millions more on private jet travel;
- LaPierre has already secured a post-employment golden parachute from the NRA, which will pay him at least $17.4 million even after he leaves the NRA; and
- The NRA continues to pay tens of millions a year to high-priced lawyers.