Cause Marketing

In Time , Sports Illustrated and other magazines there’s been a series of ads running in hot rotation and in support of a website called ‘Takemefishing.org.’ The ads and the website are sponsored by Markel Insurance Company , which insures boats and other things and a slightly murky entity called ‘Sport Fishing Restoration.’ Takemefishing.org is so declarative it’s easy to guess what that’s about. But Sport Fishing Restoration ? Therein lies a fish story about the financing of World War Two, habitat restoration and government funded cause marketing. In WWII, Congress enacted a tax on fishing tackle to help fund the war effort. By 1950, the law was changed so that tax revenues would go to state natural resource agencies to improve sport fishing. Stuff like fisheries research, boat docks and ramps, habitat improvement and education. In 1998 Sport Fishing Restoration founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF) with members of the recreation...