I’ve seen ads for products like tactical flashlights and tactical screwdrivers. And god help us, I just saw an ad for a tactical bar of soap.
Does tactical have any meaning when it’s used to describe products like this? Or is it just an empty filler to sell products to men who have issues?
I think it is an excuse to charge 50% more. Plus you might get Hunter Ellis to do your commercial.
Putting “tactical” on a product aimed for men is exactly the same as putting Spider-Man on a product aimed at boys.
You want tact, call a tactician.
This. Those products, and that term, are clearly targeting people (largely guys) who are obsessed with military (or pseudo-military) gear.
Amateurs sell products by calling them tactical, but professionals sell products by calling them logistical.
Hah!
It better have an accessory rail where you could attach the shampoo and shaving lotion.
Excellent! 
As long as it is not M-LOK. Also, it should have a Zombie Survival Paracord lanyard which can be stripped to reveal a core that has Spectra line, titanium snare wire, cannon fuse, and catgut sutures. You know, just in case you get dropped into the middle of Alaska with nothing but a terrycloth robe your bar of ‘tactical soap’.
My favorite is ‘aerospace grade aluminum’ which inevitably turns out to be ordinary 5052 or 6061 that you can buy from literally any metals supplier. Or “MIL-SPEC” anything that doesn’t actually come with any traceability documentation to demonstrate that it does actually conform to any military or NAS standard or specification.
Stranger
In addition to the above, often tactical is a way of describing an object being released in “manly” colors (please see a massive sarcasm tag in the scare quotes), normally black, red, black/red, camo or the like, to make sure no one questions your masculinity or sexuality.
IE, nope, almost all marketing and an excuse for markup by the advertisers.
I say almost because there is/was a semi-practical trend in having mil-spec gear or modifications for “civilian” equipment used in extreme circumstances, with a real, if often costly increase in cost, but when shills realized it’s unregulated, you could claim anything was tactical or “drop tested” (off one foot, into shag carpet) and slap on a 100% increase in price… well, what do you expect?
To the point where “tactical” or “mil-spec” or (ETA) @Stranger_On_A_Train’s “aerospace grade aluminum” are all words that belong in the thread about words that scream SCAM.
Its a marketing term to appeal to conservative men who hold strongly onto gender norms of masculinity.
I’ve seen coffee advertised towards these men. Just like regular coffee, just 3x more expensive.
oooh “tactical coffee”. Consists of caffeine and uppers. Keeps you alert on long night patrols. To the bathroom.
The company’s brand is tied closely to its pro-gun and socially conservative image as well as close links with American military and law enforcement.
Black. It’s black matte.
Referencing “Black Rifle Coffee” above, the “black rifle” thing is an element of gun culture where they mock people who don’t know that this and this are more or less the same thing. The joke is that the design and capabilities of a gun are irrelevant because “liberals are just afraid of black rifles”.
But by the same token, you notice that gun fans don’t buy them in pink or gray or wood furnishings either. Only black matte will do. And it’s exactly for the reason they joke about, because it looks scarier.
Tactical can mean one of three things:
Actually, if you are truly ‘tactical’, you paint your gun coyote brown or in an A-TAC camouflage pattern. Then buy some cheap NODS and walk around with flipped up attached to your helmet all the time because nothing looks cooler than walking around with two pairs of binocs hanging off your head and catching every single time you get in or out of a vehicle.
Stranger
It should be noted that “mil-spec” is a real thing. However, it’s literally just a generic purchasing requirement, like a “spec” that something be a given pantone color.
If I might correct you:
Sellers sell products to amateurs by calling them tactical, and they sell products to professionals by calling them logistical.
Yeah, I work in the development and test of submarine sonar and our product alone has tens of thousands of requirements. You could probably make up any random attribute and it meets some product’s requirement somewhere haha.
(Now it may not be at all applicable to what you’re actually selling, but hey that isn’t the point.)
Very true, and I did state that there is a case for some of the military specifications to have applications to civilian gear in some cases. But as it’s applied currently, and in the circumstances of the thread, yeah, it’s lost all meaning - because as you say, I can have something that meets ONE specification, while ignoring the rest.