American Technologies Network, makers of military, law enforcement, security and outdoor night vision and thermal applications, has announced that they are bringing Chris Shugart aboard as ATN’s new Marketing and Advertising Manager. He brings a great deal of marketing experience to the job.
Shugart previously owned and operated an advertising agency providing clients with full-service, in-house capabilities. As an entrepreneur, Shugart also teamed up with his father, Al Shugart, founder and CEO of Seagate Technology to establish and promote Carmel Bay Publishing. It was during this period that Shugart also dabbled in political marketing including creating campaign materials and website design. Shugart’s early experience in the political arena led him to start a radio show, Uncommon Sense, the basis of the show helped found the American Association of Independent Voters, a non-profit political action organization.
“I’ve been involved in marketing and advertising virtually all of my professional life. My hands-on experience covers just about every facet of strategy, design and production,” Chris Shugart commented. Chris brings an extensive set of talents and skills to any project, with a solid background in a variety of mediums and venues. He also has a diverse knowledge of products and services, covering a wide range of industries serving both the consumer and the business sector. “Sometimes it seems like there’s nothing I haven’t done—at least once, anyway.”
James Munn, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ATN, added, “We are very pleased to have someone with such an extensive background in marketing join ATN. Chris Shugart recognizes that compelling promotional campaigns are ultimately not about the technology, but about the content. And creating effective content requires expertise and know-how best left to those who have mastered the creative techniques of business communications.â€
Congrats Chris!
Just what we all need… More ATN Night Shadows to break in half. Do we need to discuss WPT or photo shopping skills. Possibly Gen 4 ???
I could go on for days about ATN marketing. You are very good at it. We talk about Night Vision at AR15.com . They have a night vision forum that Mr. Munn once visited. For some reason he won’t come back to see us.
It is a shame because I was enjoying the discussion. Do our soldiers really need a thinly disguised Russian company out of Odessa that primarily sells Russian made products supplying our troops with ANY gear ?
ATN ?? No thanks. I will stick with American made Night Vision with quality tubes and housings made by the folks at ITT or L3.
Dean, don’t hold back.
His Chris, I hope you’re enjoying your new position. You probably don’t know me yet, but I’m the one who debunks most of ATN’s night vision photographs as fakes.
Because I’m looking for a challenge in debunking your new photographs, here’s a few hints for photoshopping up fakes.
1. Use a more effective vignetting mask. This is usually my first clue. I know what different lenses vignette like.
2. Work out what a halo is and make sure all of your halo’s are in place. And you need to make them look more realistic too. Extended Dynamic range is a clue there.
3. IR reflectivity of vegetation is a big one… Learn what it looks like.
4. Sunglasses… I mean, this on is kind of obvious. When you have a green picture of special-ops kind of guys and they all have strong shadows and are wearing sunglasses, it kind of gives it away, because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people don’t usually wear sunglasses at night. Just sayin’.
5. Don’t use a really obvious picture that I might find that was taken during the day… Nothing screams “Blatant Fake” like a daylight picture I find of the exact same image. Google images is great for finding them.
6. Stars… I don’t know if you’ve heard of them? They come out at night, and I know where they are supposed to be, so you can’t put random dots of light around the place and think it looks like stars either. The moon is another obvious one. Go and look at it through some ATN night vision and notice what’s different.
Or maybe, just maybe, take a real photo through a real night vision scope, though be warned, I’ll be looking for photo’s taken through a different scope too. It’s not certain, but it usually goes that I can’t find anything wrong with real photo’s because, well, they’re not so obviously fake.
But yeah, that sunglasses thing is a biggie. Honestly, go look through some of your ATN marketting shots and see how many people are wearing sunglasses in the night pictures.
David. ( AKA CJ7HAWK )
David,
SSD is not ATN. You need to send that to them.
The Editor
He knows SSN is not ATN. ATN has been fooling folks with photo shopped pictures for MANY years ! David is VERY well versed in night vision. I can’t stand a company using fake marketing to sell scopes to inexperienced people in night vision.
There is a fine line between marketing and flat out deception. David and I both can easily prove that line has been crossed on many occasions. Folks need to be aware of ATN’s marketing tactics. They have a open invitation to discuss it in public at the AR15.com night vision forum. It is a public forum that is free to join.
They won’t discuss it… I wonder why ? We have a good many VERY experienced night vision guys. Some are scientists and experts in the field. They won’t talk with people who understand night vision because they will get owned. They know this which is why they hide. I have 0 respect for them.
I also am a former unhappy ATN customer. Many years ago I fell for the great marketing they have. My thoughts are from experience as a former customer and many years repairing and selling night vision.