What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
A friend of mine posted this on his Facebook page without comment. It prompted quite a bit of comment from his friends, who found it creepy. To summarize, they were disturbed by the suggestion that joining the Marines was like playing a shoot-em-up video game while simultaneously starring in "Godzilla" "Battleship Galactica" "Excalibur" and "Lord of the Rings."
I was prepared, reading these comments, to be irritated--my eyes were ready to roll and my tongue was ready to denounce them as the kind of people who have bumper stickers on their cars about bake sales and the Pentagon. That was until I actually watched the video:
After watching it, I changed my mind. It is creepy, don't you think? Why would the Marines want to recruit someone so divorced from reality that he or she thinks that's what being a Marine is about?
The reality of the Marines is extraordinary--much more so than this weird, slightly homoerotic sci-fi fantasy. Why wouldn't they appeal to the real history of the Marines in their recruiting commercials? Here's one from 2006 that does. Compare and contrast.
If I were running a Marine recruitment center, I'd be hoping for the kid who watched the second video and said, "Yes, that's who I want to be," not the one who watched the first and decided that it would be pretty cool to try that advanced 3-D stereoscopic gaming experience. Wouldn't you?
I'm especially curious to know what real Marines think. (We have a few on Ricochet, I believe?)
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
The video in question is over 5 years old and you are just getting worked up about it now?
Just a motivational video geared to the video gaming culture as it existed pre-2006.
Oh, and while the basics are the basics and involve little of what we would call high-tech, you would be amazed at the degree to which video gaming has influenced military training.
Here is a blog post discussing the construction of a perfect "kill-house" - (a structure where special forces folks practice storming and clearing rooms).
Jun '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
The ad doesn't bother me in the least. It's rather slick marketing designed to appeal to a specific audience: teenage boys. The reality of what it means to be a marine will hit these kids about 30 seconds after they get off the bus at Camp Pendleton. But you have to get them on the bus first.
Apr '11
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
A long time ago the Commandant of the Marine Corps tasked then Colonel, Victor H. "Brute" Krulak with answering this question: "Does America Need a Marine Corps?" Krulak's answer: "No. America doesn't need the Corps. America has a Marine Corps because America wants a Marine Corps and they want it for 3 reasons:
First: When trouble comes, America knows there are Marines somewhere who have kept themselves fit and ready to fight.
Second: When Marines go into combat they turn in a superior performance. Not sometimes, but always.
Third: They know the Marine Corps is good for America's manhood, taking, unfocused youths and turning them into productive citizens.
A made-for-TV advert with a "Lord of the Rings" vibe is not the point. The voice-over tells the story. "You will be tested" and if you succeed you can claim membership among America's best. Every kid who talks to a recruiter knows he is facing the challenge of a lifetime before he signs the papers.
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
I'm not worked up about it so much as creeped out by it--the actual Marines are so dramatic and heroic; why would you use an appeal to something so ridiculous when you're talking about the forces that raised the flag over Iwo Jima? You're right that a 2006 video isn't news, but I'd never seen that--I wondered if anyone else had the same reaction. (Anyone who isn't a bake-sale-for-the-Pentagon type.)
Dec '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
Thankfully, the first comercial did not last long on the market. True the voice over is relevant, but the visuals (to me personally) overide the message.
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
Is it excessively idealistic on my part to think teenage boys might be inspired by the thought of, say, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, the Chosin Reservoir? I fear you'll say, "They've never heard of those places." Maybe that's my point. I guess that's why this creeps me out.
May '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
First, you have to appeal to a generation who think that Iwo Jima is Japanese-built SUV.
Personally, the best ad they've come up with in the last few years is this one.
By the way, Claire, when is the last time you spent extended periods of time around teenage boys?
Edited on May 29, 2011 at 8:17amMay '11
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
This and a slew of similar ads have been part of "the prob;lem" for a long time now. Heaven forfend somebody apply for a job where they might work. I always thought the best ad for the Navy would have a grizzled old Chief with salt crusting off of his wind-burned face challenging a nation of hunch-backed, grey-eyed, video-game-controller-adapted claw-handed kids to step outside (Back button, Back button, X, Power Off, Stand, Walk, Use Door) and: haul in a 20-ton anchor, use a crane to lower a boat, drive the boat to pick up SF guys from a contested island, Fire several guns, fight a fire, and then have breakfast. Oh, and get paid for it.
United States Navy: It's the hardest work you'll ever do, if you're man enough for it.
May '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
They wanted to present the Corp as an adventure which requires courage and fortitude. A fantasy can inspire desires for adventure without fearful reflections on getting blown up by an IED or shot by some kid with his dad's AK.
I only have one Marine friend, but he has been a thrill seeker his entire life. I like the second ad better, but I suspect adrenalin junkies like my friend are initially attracted more by the challenge and promise of adventure.
May '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Is it excessively idealistic on my part to think teenage boys might be inspired by the thought of, say, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, the Chosin Reservoir?
Have you read Mark's "Too Big to Win" article in the latest National Review? America's wars these days are not like the World Wars, in which America fought to win and soldiers could expect to be hailed as heroes when they returned home.
WWII was an existential campaign between good and evil. It was a draft war for which our entire nation (not just soldiers) had to make daily sacrifices. Our soldiers continue to fight for noble causes, but they're signing up to be professional soldiers in a wide variety of smaller conflicts. They don't know if they will end up in Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany or some tiny African nation they haven't even heard of. They might find their leadership allied with the Taliban and paying foreigners not to kill them.
It's easier to recruit when there are nightly blackouts to hide the coasts from U-boats than when most civilians can live oblivious to multiple wars.
Edited on May 29, 2011 at 8:50amSep '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
It may be that the fantasy world for 18yr old boys is more compelling than the reality of those battles but there is no more reason to find it creepy than there is to think all people who train in MMA are tattoo'd, cauliflower-eared, knuckleheads trying break each other's arms for fun.
Mar '11
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
For the life of me I can't see how you are getting homoerotic out of that advert, care to enlighten? Other than that, my opinion mirrors ~Paules.
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
EJHill: By the way, Claire, when is the last time you spent extended periods of time around teenage boys? · May 29 at 8:16am
Edited on May 29 at 08:17 am
Um, yesterday. cf. earlier post about my stupid martial arts dreams. That said, teenage Turkish boys don't get recruitment videos, they get drafted. They're not under any illusions that what's waiting for them is going to be fun in any way, shape or form.
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
United States Navy: It's the hardest work you'll ever do, if you're man enough for it. · May 29 at 8:18am
I certainly see the wisdom of emphasizing the romantic and exciting part of joining the Marines in these advertisements, rather than the drudgery and exhaustion. It's the appeal to fantasy that disturbs me--I guess I'm alone in this, but I would have thought the reality so much more compelling. I'll concede that I'm not the target audience.
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
Back me up on this, gay Ricochet members--it's totally camp. Switch off the audio and put on a Village People soundtrack. Watch it again. You'll see what I mean right away.
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
Well, let's face it, a lot of them are.
May '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
Sorry, I should have said American teenage boys. Tastes are non-transferable. Early in my TV career I was told by a programmer of an independent station, "You can't base decisions on your own tastes. You do and it will be a disaster."
Same with producing advertising appeals. What works and what follows your own personal tastes are two different things. Which is why they test the bejeebers out of these things before they air.
Jun '10
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
In the game, he's fighting his own fears and insecurities. That's who he's fighting. Conquer those, and you become a real Marine. After that, fighting al-Qaeda or the Taliban will not be quite as daunting. It also maybe appeals to Evangelical Christian imagery about fighting back against Satanic forces. In America, the Bible Belt is always fertile ground for recruitment. You do what works.
Re: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
For what it is worth, I did not find the ad creepy in any way. It cast me back to the the first time I saw a Star Wars movie and reminded me of the basis of its appeal. It borrows in a clear-cut way from the first of the Lord of the Rings movies as well, and it echoes the fantasy life of early adolescent boys perfectly. If it has homoerotic undertones, then so do their imaginations.
Edited on May 29, 2011 at 9:59amRe: What Do You Think of This Recruitment Video for the Marines?
On the one hand, you're right. On the other, you're not looking for a customer here, you're looking for a Marine.
On the third hand (I'll just sprout an additional rhetorical forelimb), I suppose when I find myself to the right of everyone on Ricochet, it's time to lie down. Am I entering "fascist reactionary" territory with this? Come on, you can tell me. I can handle it.