Letter from America
Media Sizzle for an Army of Fun !!!
By Norman Solomon ©
July 11, 2002
If you call the toll-free number on the TV
screen during one of those upbeat Army commercials, a
large envelope will arrive with a white t-shirt inside.
On the back is a slogan in big block letters: "AN
ARMY OF ONE."
The only other thing in the package is a videotape called
"212 Ways to Be a Soldier." A hard-driving rock
soundtrack propels all 20 minutes. Graphics flash with a
cutting-edge look (supplied by a designer who gained
ad-biz acclaim for working on a smash Nike commercial).
Young adults provide warm narratives about their daily
lives in the Army. From the outset, the mood is
reassuring.
Sometimes, the screen fills with helicopters,
intrepid soldiers rappelling through the air, men
advancing across terrain as they carry machine guns--
always accompanied by plenty of rock 'n' roll-- all in
the service of a country much more comfortable dishing
out extreme violence than experiencing it. There's no
talk of risk, and scarcely a mention of killing.
Carefully multiracial and coed, the video gets a lot of
its juice from an undertone of foreclosed civilian
possibilities. It beckons the non-affluent who feel
trapped by a lack of appealing options.
"Probably if I hadn't joined the Army,"
says a 19-year-old woman, "I would be doing the same
thing most of my friends are doing, which is working fast
food." In contrast, her story has a happy twist.
Army recruiters "told me about the college fund that
I'd be getting.... And really, that was the kicker for
me, 'cause college was priority."
Another soldier cites dollar figures: "I got my
degree from George Washington University, a degree that
would cost me $40,000-- but cost me about 500 through the
Army." An African-American medical tech says that
the Army permitted him to "get to see some cool
things in the O.R. as far as the surgeries are
concerned." An Army-trained chef looks forward to
the day she can open her own restaurant.
"Basically," says a male reservist,
"I get to play James Bond in the Army. I participate
in stuff like conducting liaison interviews with
potential spies. I love my job. It'll also help in my
civilian job in that I work a lot with computers." A
female soldier, identified as "interrogator"
and "Spanish linguist," also beams with pride
as she offers an explanation to the camera: "I can't
really tell you a lot about the job, 'cause it is
secret."
Few could doubt the youthful energy. Or the hopeful
stamina. Or, beneath the surface, the numbed capacity for
immense cruelty.
When a helmeted captain-- seated at the controls
of a helicopter-- speaks about being part of the Army's
"air cavalry," her voice is a blend of military
fervor and adolescent zest. "The mission of the cav
is to spot the enemy," she says. "It's cool,
too, because we get to engage the enemy as well with the
guns and everything on our aircraft. It's a challenge and
it's really, it's a lot of fun. Heck, what other job can
you fire weapons in?" She laughs.
Piled onto a huge tank, some soldiers are having a ball.
One says: "We got the biggest toy in the
world."
Recruiters are starting to distribute 1.2 million
free software discs for a pair of new computer-game play
adventures called "America's Army, the Official U.S.
Army Game." This summer, most of those discs will be
attached to video-game magazines. And the Pentagon is
inviting youngsters to download the software from the
Internet.
Inducing enlistment costs money. The Army has set aside
$7.5 million for its initial video-game project. That's a
bargain, according to Lt. Col. Casey Wardynski, director
of the office of Economic and Manpower Analysis:
"The game pays for itself if only 300 Americans say
that this gaming experience convinced me that this is the
right thing to do."
Overall, the Army is spending $150 million a year
to sell itself to potential recruits. And, of course, the
current advertising campaign is the result of rigorous
calculations.
When the secretary of the Army announced a major overhaul
of recruitment themes in early 2001, he pledged that
"market research will now be an ongoing part of how
the Army thinks about how it communicates with young
people." At his side was Linda Wolf, the CEO of the
Army's main private ad agency, Leo Burnett Worldwide.
"The key with any advertising is understanding the
target that that advertising is directed at," Wolf
said. She added: "We dug into our target and really
understood them."
Norman Solomon's latest book is "The Habits of
Highly Deceptive Media."
Got
your Green Cards boys and girls? Don't forget to read the
small print....
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