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‘Buy a roof, get a gun!’ Roofing company’s ad goes viral

Posted at 1:35 PM, Jul 07, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-07 17:30:53-04

Every business tries to do something different to get new customers.

One Alabama and Texas roofing company's controversial attempt to do that is going viral.

What is its pitch? "Buy a roof, get a gun!"

"I'm not here to talk to you about roofing, rifle, I'm here to talk to you about AR-15 rifles," the commercial begins. "If you sign up for a new roof with Digital Roofing Innovations, you are going to get you a free AR-15 rifle after we complete the roof."

You heard them.

Co-owners Chris McGuire and Zach Blenkinsopp are offering customers a free gun if they buy a new roof.

The duo from Alabama told WIAT they don't have a lot of money to advertise, or to buy clothes apparently, so they made the commercial themselves.

It has now gone viral.

The guys said they made sure to focus on the correct target audience because they knew the ad would be offensive to some.

"I posted this in extremely conservative Facebook groups, extremely liberal Facebook groups, because I knew it would invoke emotion," McGuire told WIAT.

Believe it or not, buying a roof and getting a free gun is actually legal.

In fact, when they give customers the voucher after the roof is complete, they have to go through all the same background checks as if they were buying their own gun.

"People are very concerned with us promoting violence, drinking with firearms, to kind of clear that up, nobody was drinking while we're shooting guns," McGuire said.

Still, not everyone is pleased with the ad.

"You get to choose what you believe in and if people don't like it then we don't care, we're going to continue to do our business and take care of our customers," Blenkinsopp said.