Military Propaganda: Now In A Theatre Near You!
For reasons that can only be described as a long story, the FITS girls were unreasonably early to Gran Torino last night (which is not only fantastic, but a comedy according to our laugh-tastic audience).
Anyway, previews are the reason we’re perennially late to the movies. Finishing the Twizzlers during the previews leaves us food-bored during the movie, and that’s just a downer.
But this time we weren’t just early enough for the previews, we were actually there before the previews … which is when they play the commercials.
Yeah, there are commercials in theaters now. Who knew?
You really do learn something new every day …
Anyway, among the spots were ads for, of all things, the U.S. military.
That the American government has the money – not to mention the need – to advertise military service is even more inexplicable to us than even the existence of theater commercials.
In fact, we think the solicitation of military service is to stomp on its very spirit.
“Signing up†once meant honor – the unrequited initiative to sacrifice because of the sacrifice itself.
Now it’s all about making a deal – signing bonuses, education packages, compensation and benefits and other quid pro quos. It’s about the enterprise of the thing – paying dues and trading up, bartering a bargain.
Plus, the commercials make it look just that sexy, too.
One of the ads – commercial to the core – is a music video. It’s all rock rhythms and quick edits, “Three Doors Down” shots interspersed with glam soldier montages: Soldiers and kids, mostly, with one memorable shot of a solider rescuing a tow-headed child.
But soldiers don’t rescue little blonde kids . . . they leave them home to pursue darker horizons.
Service is not glamorous; often it’s not even terribly heroic.
With these slick-produced, testosterone-fueled propaganda messages, the U.S. military is basically selling the same lie that for decades people bought all on their own.
There was an inherent American certainty in service, and in its implicit reciprocity: Serve your country, serve yourself.
Still that’s the message, but the metaphor in “serve yourself†has been replaced with a more literal interpretation. People need to be cajoled and convinced, shoved into submission with the allure of good money, paternalistic purpose, and sovereign grandeur.
But like most advertising, illusions are the name of the game.
There’s a reason why poor people, blacks, and Hispanics are overrepresented in the military.
Military PR people and recruiters target those with the fewest opportunities, reeling them in with money and possibility and more importantly with the promise that the military will make them matter – to themselves, to their families, to their country.
It’s as much of a lie now as it ever was. The difference is in this little legal notion called disparate impact. Intended or not, commercialization of military service is yielding inequality, inopportune and tragic in its targeted swipes.
That’s not a small point. There’s something more here than the obvious philosophical merits to the matter of selling the service.
Think of the children, people. The kids – blonde and otherwise – fatherless, because their down-and-out dads were suckered into serving by the glitz and veneer of a Hollywood commercial.
Those are the images that should be in the commercials.
But then they wouldn’t be ads so much as PSAs – and PSAs just don’t sell. They warn … and that sort of truth in advertising is simply too much to ask of the same government which requires just that from all other businesses.
Of course, the rules of commerce don’t apply to the military because it’s not commercial in nature.
Except that it quite clearly is, and is now in a movie theatre near you …
Comments
By Military- the most efficient branch of the federal government on January 19th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Go try to take out a small business loan and see how much
paperwork and time is involved. Go try to get a passport and it takes like months .
But go sign up for the military and you quite literally could be in uniform within 10 days and to Iraq within 3 weeks. If you have trouble passing their entrance exam tests- do not worry – they have tutors who will assist you.
Now that is streamlined government efficiency.
By Zionist on January 19th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Unless you have been there, done that, I would suggest you not speak on things you really know nothing about…… Sadly, this is the kind of tripe that cheapens service to your country….. again, something you seem to know nothing about!
By Jack on January 19th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Mande,
I must commend you on your exhaustive research and well reasoned comments. A Yahoo search of “US Military Demographics” revealed a combined organization of 1,060,207 as of September 2007, including Active Duty, Guard and Reserve forces. Further statistics show that of 18-19 year olds with High School education
US Census estimates Army Enlisted
White 62% 71%
Black 16% 14%
Hispanic 16% 11%
Other 4% 4%
Other statistics show similar dispersions. One would think advertising is an appropriate recruiting tool to maintain an organization of over 1 million people. I know they had to find a replacement for me as military life was not my cup of tea. Please pause before you spout the liberal dogma. You do much better work than this.
By Mande Wilkes on January 19th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Jack -
What’s this “liberal dogma†that I’m skirting? Is it the anti-military slant?
If so, that’s an essentially conservative perspective (where conservative means libertarian, not Republican).
Pacifism is the liberal dogma. There’s that, and then there’s anti-interventionism . . . which I admit doesn’t necessarily require an anti-military slant, though in this world of polarity I find it useful if not altogether necessary.
So . . . I don’t like intervention from the government, which happens to include military intervention. That necessarily means that I’m diametric to the liberal dogma.
Our disagreement, Jack, is philosophical rather than political. You seem to understand the world in terms of right/left, so I answer you on that level. But there’s a degree of nuance to this topic that defies binary identity.
Think about it.
By Jack on January 19th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Mande,
You must be right, you are female after all, that I cannot understand the subtle nuances you profess.
“There’s a reason why poor people, blacks, and Hispanics are overrepresented in the military.” Is liberal dogma held over from the days of the draft when politicians crafted rules that created deferments available to people with money. This is no longer true in today’s all volunteer forces, as illustrated by the statistics above.( Sorry, but the column formatting comparing the population statistics to the Army statistics was eliminated in the posting)
While I believe a strong military is necessary for a lasting and secure peace, I concur that use of military forces for preemptive strikes is very rarely justified. What this has to do with berating the use of advertising as a recruitment tool for an organization the size of the US military still leaves me unable to grasp the nuances.
By Mande Wilkes on January 19th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Jack –
You’ve gone and answered your own question. The size of the military is, for you, reason enough to recruit through advertisement. For me, the size of the military is reason enough *not* to recruit through advertisement.
Even if I were interested in maintaining rather than dwindling the size of the military, I have serious reservations about the quality of recruits yielded by glam ads.
To that end, I guess we can agree, if not on the military’s size, then certainly its stature. That’s where the theatre ads come in.
If we must have a huge militia, I hope that it’s made up of the highest quality volunteer force – and that the purpose of their work need not be telegraphed in commercials . . . especially the kind of glitzy ad that’s right at home in the heady world of cinema and theatrics.
By KP on January 19th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Ugh.
By JustWondern on January 19th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
You really do need to get out more. This is all new to you?
By BIN News Editorial Staff on January 19th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Mand’eee,
The BIN News Staff met today in executive session for hours to determine if or how our staff should respond to your pulp fiction post.
Mand’eee, we all came to an agreement on a quote that expresses it. We also all came to the conclusion you need to enlist in the US Army or Marines.
Patton – The Speech from the Movie:
“Be seated!
Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.
Men, all this stuff you’ve heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung.
Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball player, the toughest boxer.
Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser.
Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.
Now, an Army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. The bilious bastards who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.
We have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit and the best men in the world. You know, by God I actually pity those poor bastards we’re going up against. By God, I do. We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel.
Now, some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you’ll chicken out under fire. Don’t worry about it. I can assure you that you will all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood. Shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend’s face, you’ll know what to do.
Now there’s another thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy.
We’re going to hold onto him by the nose and we’re going to kick him in the ass. We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we’re gonna go through him like crap through a goose.
There’s one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home.
And you may thank God for it.
Thirty years from now when you’re sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what did you do in the great World War II, you won’t have to say, “Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana.”
Alright now, you sons-of-bitches, you know how I feel. Oh, and I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle – anytime, anywhere.
That’s all.”
Mand’eee. Join the Army or the Marines. Then write you cr@p.
Signed,
Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, Esq.
Contributing Editor and Military Correspondent
BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced
By Wake Up America! on January 21st, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Check this out if you haven’t already:
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/525318.aspx
Geert Wilders: “Defend our freedom before it is too late.”