Adventures in Military Advertising

I saw a big billboard in Times Square. It's incongruous for its minimalism -- just a picture of a grey boat on a blue sea, and the inscription NavyForMoms.com. If you go to navyformoms.com, you'll find a message board and an opportunity to create a profile, all under a banner depicting framed snapshots on a shelf -- two sailors smiling together, a black kid in headphones, an Asian girl carrying schoolbooks. The headline: "You gave them the values. We give them the opportunity."

Front-racked among the board posts on the front page are things like, "Just wondering if there were any other Moms out there with son/daughters in Oceana?" and "Does anyone know how long sub school is after nuke school? I know it is in Groton, Conn." Many of the profile pictures are the eponymous Moms hugging sailors.

A billboard in Times Square is big cash to spend promoting a BBS for moms. Which is exactly what they're not doing. They're putting up a big photo of an empty sea that says, "Hey Mom, does your kid want to join the service to get the hell out of Highland Falls or Bed-Stuy, or to get some bucks for school, or just to get some bucks, period? Check this out -- water. Where's the sand? There is no sand. Weird people in burqas? Not unless they got boats!"

I searched for "U.S.S. Cole" on the site and, on the first page, their was stuff like this: "uh i dunno either, lol mick told me that hes on the USS Cole (im pretty sure thats it) its like the best barracks theres, lol so he got lucky!"

And: "my Sailors name is steven and he is a fire controlmen and will deploy on the rebuilt USS Cole."

And: "I've heard of battle stations, but I didn't know it was 12 hours long....and what do you mean reenacting the USS Cole?"

Near the bottom of the second page there's a post mentioning the Cole along with the World Trade Center. On the third, there's a couple more mentions of it in a patriotic context, and an outraged tale of two sailors in Pensacola getting drunk and stealing a bread truck. "WHERE is the DISIPLINE???" the author laments.

I grew up a military kid, on Army bases, and it was fascinating to watch the join-the-Army ads spooling by on TV, in contrast to the drab reality of military life. It was the era of the slogan Be All You Can Be. My dad was an officer, and, the housing areas of Army bases being segregated by rank, my friends' dads were also majors or lieutenant colonels who had been in Vietnam. There was weirdness going on in those identical houses, post-traumatic stress disorder yet to be medically named. With some of my friends' dads you got the impression that they'd stayed in the Army because they were scared of a civilian world lacking the strict structure of the military, where they'd be left to their own devices. I think that those who felt like this felt certain they were the only ones. I wonder if it nagged at them, at night, drinking beer, watching the ads between innings: Be all you can be.

It's perverse to me that we employ ad agencies to attract our soldiers and sailors. How weird is it that on shows skewed young, between the Mountain Dew and the L'Oreal ads, there are exhortations to pick up a gun and serve your country? How did we let this just become noise in the background? When the Iraq war started, and artists here and there spoke against it, I thought: It's nice to play your hits at a rally, but how about pulling your video from MTV, supported financially in part by a government trying to attract young bodies that Bush and Cheney can throw at their preferred outcome of history?

Comments

[sudra]

It's not the "Be all that you can be" type of ads I find particularly perverse, it's the subtle indoctrination they use on children that bothers me. Last year we went to Wal Mart to get some summer clothes for my 12 yr old daughter. In the racks of the Junior's dept. were some red tank-tops with the U.S. Army logo featured right on the front. Somehow, I don't think it's a mistake that they were being sold in Wal Mart - where there's a plentiful supply of working-class people down on their luck. To me, it's worse than putting Joe Camel on a pack of cigarettes.

[topchef]

While it might seem "edgy" to claim our Armed Forces advertising campaigns are misleading and causing teenagers to become a member of something you feel isn't in their best interests, what I haven't seen discussed is the alternative.

Let's take one of our closest allies, Israel and their Israel Defense Forces for example. National military service is mandatory for Jewish and Druze men and Jewish women over the age of 18. Yes, MANDATORY. Would you rather this be the de facto standard for all countries, the United States included? At least that way, there'd be no surprises...and no freedom of choice, either.

I choose not to ask my doctor about Viagra, even though commercials tell me just how awesome my erection could be if only I popped a little blue pill. I also chose not to be in the Armed Forces.

I do, however, thank our Founding Fathers and our Armed Forces for respectively creating and protecting my freedom to choose.

[larry278]

What happens when the Iraqi's kick out the US occupation farces? Bringing the troops back is going to take big bucks. Where will the troops go when they get back? Keeping them in the USA & combat ready will be most expensive. A RIF, Reduction In Forces, is coming. That means that the ex-GI's will need jobs & benefits from the VA, very quickly. Since 9/15/08 there won't be any money. The Chinese won't be buying US paper. BHO'S Presidency will be a challenge.

[Glhomme]

I was not an army kid altho my Father did serve his years in the army abroad over in Japan keeping an eye on the Russians or whatever. its not something he has ever really spoken about. I am very proud and appreciative of him and all the other men and women whom choose to serve our country and protect the "freedoms" we're all granted. But i do not agree with the advertising techniques they use today to get kids to enlist. I have seen movie style posters for the Army, that make it look fun & glamorous, altho i was never one to be interested in joining the service, i definitely felt like i wanted to see that "movie"

[yourmisfortune]

Amen to that Mike. i especially agree about artists pulling their videos from MTV. To join the military should be a choice that one wants to pursue with his or her own life. The military promises money for college, medical benefits and housing, and a brilliant career. Sure, we need good men and women who WANT a career in our military to keep our freedoms, but I think it's horrible how they pursuade young minds into false hopes. How many young people over the years joined the military thinking they could just serve their country for a few years, go to college, learn a trade, and be done with it? I think a lot of those people had a rude awakening when they were called on for active duty. It should be a choice for the right reasons.

[AlyJane]

My Dad's birthday was the first choosen in the most recent nation wide draft. At the time, he was a long-haired hippie driving around in a car with a peace sign spray painted on the roof. He was able to dodge going to Vietnam because of being wounded an in intense ping pong game and was dishonorably discharged. Anyways, I'm blssed that my dad was never sent into combat in Vietnam like many of his friends, of whom are dead now or are suffering from mental illness and alcholism and drug addictions. I would never be able to live the life I have now or have a great relationship with my dad had he gone into combat.
It's really messed up that the government needs a large ad budget and make joining the militray look glamorous to persude young people to join. One of my professors, told me a story how right before 9/11, one of the military institutions came to her ad agency and wanted them to create a new ad campaign designed to focus on gaining attention only of the affluent white male demographic. After 9/11, they chose to pull alll the ads.
MTV doens't play videos anyway, so not a big deal.

[scullyd90]

This issue really struck home for me with 3 Doors Down allowing their music to be used in recruitment ads. I have no problem with artist voicing an opinion for or against the war but it feels dishonest for the government to use subtle coercion like that in recruitment. Something about treating the military like a product rather than a life choice seems misguided

[rambit]

I also grew up as an Army brat, and later joined the Army myself. It was one of the best decisions of my life, and my service helped me to pay for college. While I don't agree with the war in Iraq, that is no reason to trash the military and their recruitment techniques.

The fact is, we need quality men and women in our military. And we need a Commander in Chief that will keep them out of bogus wars, and that will insure they have the tools they need to complete their mission, and the support they need to recover. Protest by electing the right man for the job, not by trashing the organizations meant to protect us and our freedoms.

[BlackJAC]

You forget how bait-and-switch recruiting can be. The commercial shows enlistees having lunch in a picturesque European sidewalk cafe, but you wind up peeling potatoes in the mess hall of Salaam-al-Baksheesh Air Base in Kharjakistan. And then there's how politicians sing your praises for the cameras and then order you to your needless death simply to assuage their own masculinity.

[jhNY]

I seem to recall there were far fewer military service ads in the days before the all-volunteer era, as the kids back then didn't need to be convinced so much as corralled.

[BlackJAC]

That's nothing compared to the Air Force's "Rocky Recruiter" mascot, which I cannot take seriously.