Bowhunter Waddell ad
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Contributors to this thread:
Curious for opinions on the Bone Collector lab coat ad where they get splashed with blood.I thought it was idiotic on a few levels but since I'm an OG boomer I wondered what the fist pump smoked him crowd thought.
I can't stand Waddell. I walked out of his speech at the Fall Classic in Springfield one year.
I have all the Bone Licker limited edition D’Bag junk they sell :^))))
Terrible ad. I’m embarrassed to see it in Bowhunter Magazine.
Just curious why folks don't like Waddell. Is it his personal life? Is it the way he hunts? Is it his excitement? What has made you decide to not like a person that you probably haven't even met. Just curious
He actually seems like a really nice guy and is probably a lot of fun. And I like how he brought his friends along when he got successful.
I think they just get caught up in the Dbag attitude and what makes for lively TV
I enjoyed the old Realtree Road trips show but I'm assuming Jordan had more control over that show.
An old discussion....but I never liked the phrases "smoked'em" and "laid the smack-down on them". Ol' Mike had a habit of saying that.
I can deal with the phrases. But that ad was over the top for me. Looked like the Taliban had just beheaded someone. Classless and I'm surprised that Bowhunter allowed it. Especially the way it had the cut-out with the bloody face inside the cutout.
If the intent was for the advertiser to get attention - mission accomplished.
I will never belittle someone who makes a living doing what most of us would give our left you-know-what to do. I don’t mind someone showing some personality and emotion…until they start playing to the camera. That’s when I can no longer watch. As far as ads go, I wish common sense prevailed. When this over-the-top crap finally turns enough non-hunters into anti-hunters, they’ll finally realize “why were we so stupid”? Unfortunately, it’ll be too late.
The ads both tv and magazine splashing blood around are tasteless crap. I'm disappointed that Bowhunter/Crossbowhunter advertisement periodical ran it!!!
Why are you blaming Waddell? G5 is the manufacturer that put that ad out.
I haven't seen the ad but am curious now.
My only other comment is am surprised that Thornton didn't like someone....
Its so bad that this site and stick bow won't allow it to be posted... Absolutely pathetic, The kind of garbage you don't want to be associated with. Every hunter should be pissed off by these kinds of things. Some of what we do doesn't translate well to the general public. I have been on blood trails in tall grass where I have been a bloody mess by the time I was done. But Im not going to go to my grand kids sporting events covered in blood. Guys need to think...
Nocturnal II's Link
Didn't they say Waddell 'sold out' morally when he grabbed his third (3rd) wife from his producer and best buddy named Womack?? At least according to old internet hunting forums....
I stopped watching most of the mainstream hunting stuff a long time ago. Including his. I dont know if he has sold out, or is a douche today. I honestly havent paid any attention to him lately.
But the last time I was deployed, he was speaking at a NWTF banquet my FIL was auctioneering. My disabled son was there, and Mike spent about 30 minutes talking to him about me and my love of bowhunting, and how proud he was I was doing what I was doing. Then he signed a hat and told my boy to give it to me when I got home. It made a real positive impression on my son, so for at least one night, he was solid.
At the Minneapolis airport 7-8 years ago, I ran on to T Bone and Nick Munck (sp) in a bar. Chatted with them a bit. Seemed like decent guys. I don’t get to excited one way or another by so called celebrities, hunting, sporting, business or otherwise. As long as they’re not trying to control me, I don’t care what they do, within the law. Who cares. If you don’t like them, or their shows, or personality, or commercials, or that they’re red necks. Just avoid them. Some guys create a lot of problems for them selves.
I've met some at hunting shows, and the bone collector crew came across as a group of guys who just have fun together.
I’ve never met any of those guys. I’ll just assume they’re good people. But, if G5 wanted to depict hunters as a bunch of blood thirsty animals, they certainly hit the nail in the head. As hunters, we must be better than this.
Personally I think some of you all are a little sensitive. It would be one thing if they were running them during Seinfeld reruns that general public watches. But it is Bowhunter magazine or the outdoor channel. It is hunters watching and I know we have a few sissies in our ranks (at least one already on this thread and I am sure more coming) but come on we kill animals there is blood - lets face it the more the better after a shot. We don't harvest them like a corn from a garden. Beside if a non hunters see them in a hunting magazine or hunting showing they are also going to see real animals getting shot and or pictures of dead critters. What do you think is going to potentially offend someone? I am tired of my side kowtowing for being who are to a bunch of woke, limp wristed people. If you are not paying attention it ain't working. Let people know who you are, what you do, and stand for and if they don't like tell them to kiss your ass.
Waddell granted was given some push along the way, but the guy can absolutely hunt. Nobody pulls back the bow or pulls the trigger for him.
That said, he definitely has had some beautiful places to hunt.
In regards to the Ad, I agree over the top, but I wonder if the “ BC” crew had any say in regards to having the ad placed in the first place. Well, actually, I think that was a dumb question, they get paid no matter what. Smokem, Wackem, Stackem.
Sigh
I have no problem with Michael or the BC crew at all. Seem like great guys. I'm not faulting them for being in the ad. Just surprised to see it in Bowhunter as they used to have really high standards on the blood and gore stuff. I'm sure there was a lively discussion about it knowing my friends there.
They don't call him lukewarm JohnMc. I agree give me hot or cold any day. At least you know where you stand. Re: op - haven't seen the add but shock and awe does work for some people.
That is G5 add - actors just follow the script.
I love certain G5 broadheads but G5 and Bowhunter magazine never should have published the ad. Is that not what the original question was?
He lost me when he was screwing around with his cameraman’s wife. A guy that does that can’t be trusted.
I always watched their show because they killed big deer and the camera work was always first rate. Some of their antics got a little old but I never had a problem with any of them. This is the kind of garbage that makes all of us look bad. I don't understand the in your face kiss my ass attitude some people hold up as beyond reproach. Acting like a belligerent jackass isn't a sign of manliness. Its a sign of stupidity...
Well if I were an anti Hunter I would use this ad to send out and fund raise and show congressional committees that hunters are psychotic killers, only interested in blood letting. Great job bowhunter magazine , way to paint hunters as nut jobs, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. This ad only backs up my decision to stop reading that magazine and G5 ought to be ashamed of themselves for representing hunters as killers.
Great photos for fund raising! Way to go G5 and BH give the antis ammo to ban hunting.
I think they drank too much natty light in the production room on that one ;) Yeah not tasteful, not respectful, and leaving so much that is to be admired about the traditional of bowhunting behind
Didn't like the add when I saw it, can't stand there show, they think they are all comedians...They are not.
Wow all 30 subscribers are also on Bowsite!
Gratuitous but if anyone thinks the add is more anti-fodder than any picture of any hunter posing with a dead animal they are not in tune to the emotions of the opposing side
Try e magazine is better than it came off with that add it was just not needed
I don't have a problem with the ad or Bone Collector. Didn't pay much attention to it my state doesn't allow mechanicals. A lot of over reaction and jealousy in my opinion.
I don’t have a problem with the second ad. But the first one with blood spatter all over his butcher coat is over the top in my opinion and kind of makes a mockery of things.
I’ve met and talked to all three guys on multiple occasions. Great guys and fun to talk to.
As for the add, I don’t have a problem with it at all. Just look at some of the packaging for broadhead companies and their names. Tasteless I guess. What kind of tv shows or movies do we watch? Glorifying the death and murder of human beings but that’s ok? Yeah, I know no one really got hurt but it still puts the idea of it in your head. What about the video games kids play? Not long ago many here on BS were showing a lot of love for shows like “Yellowstone” and “GoT”. That’s ok but a stupid broadhead add is tasteless and terrible to show in a hunting magazine? Maybe I should post pictures of my everyday job and see if I can get the same reaction. Lol
Let's flip the scenario. If the magazine(s) or TV show censored your ad that showed blood....would folks complain about being censored?
Broadhead ads like this will do irreparable harm to our children.
Lots of adds are tasteless, cheesy, lame, pathetic, horrible etc. Not just broadhead adds. Radio commercials are the worse. If they are going to make tasteless adds at least put hot women in the add. I don't read those magazines or watch the TV shows. The celebrities I worship are my family, close friends, and my dogs.
25 years ago, this would have been fine. Today we are in the voting minority. We can't afford to keep swaying non-hunters into anti-hunters.
These guys are no longer real hunters any more than WWE wrestlers are real wrestlers. Like "most" celebrities, they have lost touch with reality and forgotten where they came from. Any one of us in their tree stands would harvest the same animals they do. We can be envious of their stand locations without being envious of their personalities.
X-man X 2. Fewer and fewer hunters joining our passion each year and showing hunters as blood thirsty psychos ain't helping. Comparing fantasy(video games) and real life are totally different. Let's not forget that the antis not only use the aspect of blood thirsty but also use pictures like these to yell cruelty to animals. You all see the asp a commercial where they show,dogs in rusty cages with sad music and the poor little cute puppy shivering in the cage? Do you all know how much money they raise each time they run that ad? Normally mr wells has come in here and defended his side. When things like this have come up, I guess this one is indefensible. Good thing I gave up that rag years ago, had I not, I certainly would cancel over this. We as a community need to police ourselves and show ourselves in the best possible light otherwise we are doomed.
I don't have cable so I hardly keep up with that kind of stuff but they sound like the kind of people that say they kill animals instead of harvesting them. Terrible terrible.
Wonder if this ad will continue to be used ? Sometimes we all use poor judgment. Maybe the parties involved will come out with a statement saying they made a mistake. If they do, I'll have a much better opinion of them. At this point and for a short time im neutral and just wait and see on what side of neutral I'll go to. Ed
Some of you are being hypocrites we love to talk about blood trail and holes left by broadheads that is a good percentage of what bowsite is especially as we enter the hunting season. We have had a thread showing videos of just blood trails posted very recently. Thread debating what broadhead will penetrate the most and make the biggest hole. Picture galore of blood and holes in game. Pauls got a thread with a antelope with a arrow stuck in its spine rearing up at a water hole. (Good for Paul) You don’t think that has more potential to offend someone senses? Like Bowhunter magazine bowsite is almost exclusively seen by bowhunters. There is nothing we as bowhunters can wish for more than a short bloody trail to the critter we just shot. That is a sign we did it right and brought a quick death to animal we just shot. If G5 or any other head for that matter think they can help you do that better, they should be proud of that and let potential customers know it.
I 100% believe the biggest issue most have with this ad is that you have been programmed to kowtow to woke mafia. Most people are so afraid to say how they really feel these day, Gay marriage, BLM, making good money at work, capitalism, the homeless epidemic. No there is nothing wrong with being sensitive to other feelings, but not when it means you hide your true beliefs and values. I firmly belief we have been indoctrinated to hide our conservative beliefs and that a big reason our country moved in the direction it has.
Well the ad certainly generated a lot of talk, whether positive or negative, so from an advertisement standpoint I guess mission accomplished.
There has definitely been a change in the ad content since the latest ownership group took control. Dwight Schuh told me he was fighting tooth and nail against crossbow ads back then, but accepted he was fighting a losing battle. Jeff, Curt, Brian and the others have had to go along with the "new" direction. Some other good ones have chosen to leave the publication. That's how it goes.
Times change. The business is about grabbing eyeballs, and sensationalism sells more than the image of some old guy in wool and a fedora slinking silently through the woods..
The gaping wound hole is more surprising to me than anything. It doesn't bother me, but I am shocked Bowhunter ran it.
I personally don't have a problem with the blood, guts and holes in a magazine I subscribe to or would read. In all honesty....I probably wouldn't have noticed these things if they hadn't been brought up on this thread. I'd look at the ad as just another product I may/may not be interested in and move on. Maybe I've lived in the blood, guts and holes world for so long I'm desensitized to it??
Putting in a different scenario......I could see a mom sitting in the doctor's office waiting room having a problem with her son or daughter looking thru that magazine they picked up from a table with the other reading material you often see laying around.
I think G5 is junk. I don't appreciate anything gratuitous. That stated, the entirety of the ad is easily defensible. Exsanguination is the name of the game so the more blood the better. In the context of a surgically sharp broadhead combined with the energy to drive it through a body, the formula is: xblood = yhumane. An archer can put an animal down as if it was sleeping. Try that with a wolf pack.
Yes there is bloodleting involved in bowhunting. But I don't walk into the blood trail roll all over it or take organs out of the gut pile and rub on my face like a Zombie. Show a little damn respect for the animals we hunt. What]s wrong with illustrating a tradition like the cedar bough in the deer mouth while you praise your creator for the chance to hunt and be successful?
As far as rumors about who is committing adultery with someone else's wife that story goes around with just about every hunting celebrity. Doesn't make it true. Fact is after almost 50 years bowhunting I could give a rip what some celebrity thinks.
Tonybear61, There is a middle ground between blood spatter and a cedar bough. Frankly, I'd rather see the splatter because the cedar bough is too much artifice to be credible on a globally perceived scale. It would appear as rationalization to the initiated/ haters.
Since March of 2020, we've heard the droning of "believe the science." Well, I think that applies to how we feed ourselves, as well. We should 'believe the science' and kill efficiently instead of industrializing the act and eliciting all the collateral damage involved thereof.
So here are my thoughts on the subject, which are worth about as much as a velvet painting of a whale and s dolphin gettin it on, as Rick Bobby once so eloquently spoke. And its been a few hours since i read updated posts, so im sorry if i repeat someone…...
I think each one of us has a different threshold for these type of things. And one person’s threshold might be much higher on a certain type of thing than it is on another. Its undeniable that we are wired differently. We each are here at bowsite because we love the same thing but at times have felt that others here cant possibly feel as passionate about it as we are because of something they have posted or believe. And we certainly have had others think about us, “that guy just doesnt get it” at some point.
Those thresholds have been formed and shaped by our personal life experiences, both while doing what we love and just in our everyday lives. Something may be commonplace to some of us so certain things are barely an afterthought where as that same thing may be a bit if a shock to someone else. In the end, one guy thinks the other is too sensitive and needs to suck it up and the other guy thinks the other just doesnt get it and is irresponsibly sabotaging things. In most cases, they are probably both right though the percentage is rarely 50/50 i would guess.
I havent seen the ad discussed here but i lean towards it being unnecessary and could create more bad for what we do than the business it may generate based off the description and the pictures above. It just puts a pit in my stomach, the same stomach that gets butterflies every time i think about being out there filling tags. The sane stomach that has been tied in knots when things out there dont go to plan and we have to fight thru and deal with that because we know its part of it at times.
BUT, there was a thread here in the past where something that i strongly felt to be more of a hugely negative image for hunting, more specifically bowhunting and a certain off-putting to the fence-sitters that we NEED to pull into understanding what we do and the need for it than the enjoyment/humor that it could possibly provide to the viewers here by seeing the video and hearing the story. I voiced my opinion and was heavily in the minority and though to this minute i still believe in my heart i am right and the majority were wrong, the bottom line was that i had to realize that maybe it isnt as big a deal to bowhunting ppl as it is to me so though i still feel negatively about it, i shouldnt get up in arms about it. Its interesting to see however some of the guys that were laughing it up at the video in that instance and saying it wasnt a big deal and ppl needed to be tougher seem to be on the other side of this one. And the blood in the ad is fake blood, it aint a real live animal.
But that just goes to show what we should probably all realize…..we are each different in our tolerances for things and also in what we think is negative or positive or not needle-moving one way or another. And again, who is right and who is wrong? We dont get to decide, those fence-sitters will eventually decide. Not us…not the antis….the ppl in the middle. But absolutely, what we do, how we do it and which of that is put out there will be the influence that helps the ppl we need make the decision on if they understand our side even if they dont have the desire to join us. And the side of the fence they decide to stand on will absolutely have some kind of bearing on what the children raised by those ppl have to use in deciding how they feel about it and where they will stand.
As far as the crew in the ad, i have only ever met waddell and it was at a sportsmans show in harrisburg where i was one of probably a hundred he talked to in a couple hours that night. He was amazingly kind to every person that i was able to see the interaction of, and especially my wife, my 6 month old daughter and myself. In a setting where he has his butt kissed he was humble. In a setting where he probably heard a hundred of the same stories from the elmer fudd types, or a hundred stories from the king of the mountain wanna-be guys, he was patient and kind. Some guys here cant get thru three posts without blowing up like a gobbler in May and telling someone they are wrong. He hears it all and was kind and sincere to those who i heard him speak to.
Now…the camera man’s wife thing…im pretty bad at not drawing a hard line and judging the heck out of someone that does that kind of thing and i certainly cant stand for them. But, as i get older i see some of the best kinda ppl on this earth lose that battle and cross that line and though i will never understand it, i try to leave that judgement to the ultimate Judge. Im not sayin id trust them with my wife, because i wouldnt. But it shouldnt affect how u feel about an advertisement. U agree with the premise of the ad or u dont, period.
Again, im not any kind of qualified to say im right and someone else is wrong, but that how i sees it.
Sorry SIP I'm not reading your book.
Hi folks, Let’s not kid ourselves: We can portray ourselves in tuxedos & 3 piece - suits..............our enemies will still be our enemies & will still vehemently despise us & everything we stand for. That being said - do I think we should constantly push the envelope in a certain direction simply in an attempt to generate sales? Of course not. There’s a right way & a wrong way to do things. I think a good litmus test would be to ask: “How would I feel if I went to buy a steak & on the packaging was a picture of the butcher covered in blood”? Translation: Everything should be done with a touch of class & dignity.
It is likely that it was not the Bone Head crew's idea. That said, they went along with it and that shows very poor judgement on their part. They are rightfully being condemned by concerned bowhunters that know this advertisement goes beyond "poor taste." As for Bowhunter magazine, that magazine has been worthless since the present crew took over the magazine.
I call my lady "Left Wing Whacko" and she calls me "High Tech Redneck Right Wing Whino, but I can't stomach any of them SMACKDADDY southern hillbillies...
I was thinking along the same lines as Chief. I don’t apologize to anyone for what we do!(as Bowhunters) But I don’t think we should make light of it either, just for laughs.
Just thinking about it again now- if Waddell had a police uniform on with blood spatter all over it and he was advertising .40 cal pistol ammo ...................would you think that was funny?
Brilliant marketing! They just had it reposted for free in its entirety on Bowsite! Didnt pay a dime, didnt even need approval!!
"Sorry SIP I'm not reading your book." x2
Poor taste - maybe, controversial - definitely. Spreading like wild fire through the bow hunting community - PRICELESS.
As Fat Albert would say "heyheyhey Teacher's out of town-no class"