Action Performance Gets Behind Scales & Tales

(Editor's note: This is the first part of a 2-part article on Bill McElroy's Scales & Tales cartoon.)

By this time BassFans have heard it all. This "exciting" sponsor or that "out of the box" program will take bass fishing to "the next level," meaning NASCAR, PGA golf or something like it. And maybe one or more of those things will suddenly pop professional bass fishing onto the front doorsteps of non-fishing America.

Or maybe it will happen by a completely different mechanism. Could be you'll know that bass fishing has arrived when a bass fishing cartoon shows up in the funny papers every week.

Sound crazy? It could happen, and sooner than you think, thanks to a bass fisherman named Bill "Mac" McElroy and a large company called Action Performance.

BassFans who have been readers of BASS Times, BASS's monthly Federation-oriented publication, will know McElroy as the mastermind behind arguably the funniest cartoon in the outdoors industry: Scales & Tales. His panel was a regular feature at the front of BASS Times for 10 years, and though it no longer appears there, it should be appearing in many more places soon, including several outdoor magazines.

That's because of Phoenix, Ariz.-based Action Performance Companies Inc. Best known for creating the NASCAR collectibles craze, Action Performance is now getting into bass fishing through its Castaway division (no relation to the rod company of the same name).

Castaway is headed-up by Lonnie Boutte, who retired from Action Performance after growing the Racing Collectible Club of America to an entity that now has more than 270,000 members. He was brought back to captain Action Performance's entry into bass fishing, and said: "My interest in returning to Action Performance was a personal interest in fishing (and) the opportunity to participate again in a new market (with a lot of) potential.

"Action Performance has had success in the motorsports world in terms of creating diecast collectibles and other licensed product lines, including apparel, and has clearly seen the growth of fishing industry, especially bass fishing," he said. "So from a diversification side, the goal is to expand into fishing by creating a line of collectibles." That will happen "primarily (by) utilizing the bass boats of popular anglers, as well as cross-utilizing the licenses we have on the NASCAR side by creating NASCAR paint schemes on bass boats.

On the angler side, "We're on our third diecast boat scheme for Hank Parker, we just introduced a Kevin VanDam commemorative-edition boat, and we're working on presentations for 3-4 more anglers."

Scales & Tales vs. Nemo

But as a public company (NYSE symbol: ATN) that had more than $406 million in revenues last fiscal year, Action Performance does much more than just collectible diecasts, as can be seen by what it's trying to do with Scales & Tales.

Boutte said: "What spurred my interest in (Scales & Tales) was the amount of success the movie industry has had in showing underwater characters. And I saw that (the Scales & Tales) characters had considerably more personality (than the movie characters) as it applies to anglers, the fishing industry and families."

He said that the ability of McElroy's characters to reach families and kids was of particular interest. "We're always seeing adults and the industry trying to create more opportunities for kids to participate in bass fishing, and (McElroy's) characters relate to that more than Nemo (of the "Finding Nemo" movie) does. Our recent launch of the Scales & Tales web site (www.scalesandtales.net) is to show people those characters, and ideally (use the characters) to bridge the gap between adult anglers and the potential for more kids to enjoy the sport together as a family.

"We're also syndicating his cartoon in as many popular fishing publications as we can get it into, and we're leveraging third-party licensing opportunities and endorsement opportunities. The ultimate goal is to (get the characters) in some mass-media involvement, whether that's a cartoon, a short or a full-length feature movie."

The Next Level?

So let's get this straight: Giant, fan-oriented motorsports company Action Performance gets into bass fishing, is putting Scales & Tales cartoons in print and on merchandise, and will try to convince Hollywood to make a Scales & Tales movie.

No "next level" language, but that's the most tangible example yet of what could qualify as the next level, if that means a wider awareness of bass fishing.

Not bad for a Federation tournament angler from Michigan. We'll hear from McElroy tomorrow.

- End of part 1 (of 2) -