Operation Sign 'Em Up - Recruiting For The Military In A Digital Age
from the recrafting-the-military-image dept
There's certainly a lot of focus on the armed forced of the US these days, so it's interesting to read about their latest tactcics in trying to sign up new recruits. After realizing that their old advertising campaign just wasn't cutting it, the military has decided to reshape its brand to get some attention from the youth of today. That has meant a cutting edge website, video games, reality TV, and more exciting advertising (many of which we've discussed before0. So far, they claim it's working. While some of this makes perfect sense, I must admit I find it a little scary that people feel our armed forces need to be "marketed" to new recruits. This makes it sound like they're trying to trick kids into joining, instead of letting them make informed decicions about what's best for their lives.
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Long term trend
The demography of the US military is already changing; contrary to Vietnam-era stereotypes of ghetto kids, most personnel today are whites from small towns who can't afford college. In another few decades, the military will no longer be a way for working class kids to get educated/trained; it will become a selective institution for college-graduate athlete-techies.
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