Trout Talk

Truck-makers: Do we have a deal for you

Would you really drive a truck through this?

TROUT magazine offers one auto company a free ad about fixing a river, not destroying it

I’ve seen the ads.  People have been sending them to me. It’s like a bad dream that keeps repeating itself: Trucks and SUV’s plowing through rivers… which destroys rivers… somehow connected to fishing, like that’s all part of the ultimate outdoor experience. 

I’ve come to a simple conclusion: They just don’t understand. The companies, the ad agencies and “creatives” are apparently so unfamiliar with what real fly fishing is all about that they return to a formula that deeply offends the demographic they’re chasing. They don’t know that an ad with a truck plowing through a river with fly anglers superimposed above is basically like showing a truck doing donuts on the 18th green at Pebble Beach with a golf-clapping gallery superimposed above that.

But instead of pointing out the bad—there are now too many examples to list—I’ve decided to reward the good. 

So I’m offering a full-page, four-color ad space worth almost $6,000 for free to the first company that shows their vehicle in action making a river better, instead of destroying it. Show your truck hauling trees to be planted along the bank or carrying a crew that’s restoring a stream… show your SUV offloading a bunch of eager kids in waders. 

People who know what they’re really fishing for wouldn’t think to drive a truck through this.

You produce the art and we will give you the specs, the space, and promise prime placement in our next issue of TROUT magazine. A one-time full-page insertion typically costs $5,731 and we’ll give it to you for nothing.

Moreover, we’ll write about why we gave it to you and tell TU’s 330,000+ members and supporters in print, digital and social media that you genuinely care about rivers and fishing.

Just do something positive. I’ll put that in front of the largest print readership in fly fishing—hundreds of thousands of serious outdoor aficionados who really fish.

Heck, if you’re really serious, we’ll even take you and your team fishing.

Who’s going to be first? kdeeter@tu.org.