Marketing: 1935 and Now



When FN Herstal came out with the 5.7x28mm cartridge (and the accompanying Five-seveN pistol) a few years back, there was a bit of hand-wringing in certain circles over its ability to pierce body armor.

Bear in mind, the 5.7mm is really a souped-up .22 WMR, not some >5000 ft/s barnburner.  It's not the first (or only) gun made that'll punch through body armor.  Yet, everyone got their panties in a bunch over it.

Personally, I'd rather have seen it marketed as what it really is:  a great small-game and target cartridge.  Put it in a single-shot bolt or lever-action rifle, and you've got a successor to smallbore centerfire loadings like the .22 Hornet.  But, I guess FN was shooting for military contracts rather than the civilian market.

As such, we're stuck with grim, utilitarian guns that look like something out of a bad science fiction film.

If you want to market a gun with armor-piercing capabilities and do it right, just follow the lead set by one company back in 1935:
Imagine a handgun that takes the "proof" out of bullet-proof vests and glass...that pierces armor plate...that will smash through and automobile's structure.

[A gun] delivering 1510 foot-seconds muzzle velocity and 800 foot-pounds muzzle energy.

Is this the work of some backwater antigovernment milita?  Nope.  It's from the original advertising campaign for the Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, one of the most endearing and influential firearms designs of the 20th Century.

Imagine the hysteria such an advertisement would generate today.

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