Advertisements are developed to sell some product, service or idea to a targeted group. In that context, there’s a couple of ways to look at this.
The Russian military promo advertisement is trying to sell the military as an action movie. I mean, it could be an action movie trailer. There’s good looking physically fit guys doing cool stuff with helicopters, guns, etc with a ominous background track.
They are targeting the same demographic that usually likes action movies too… young men. Makes sense, that’s who they want showing up at the recruiting station. The ad is trying to sell the idea that “You can be doing this cool stuff” to that demographic.
US military recruitment advertisements have for a long time focused more on pragmatic “What you can get out of your time in the service”. Get paid while you go to school. Learn valuable career skills. Learn leadership skills. Be the best you can be. Army strong. These themes conveyed the message that joining the Army will help someone build character, find purpose, and improve their emotional and physical strength. These themes were usually backed up with themes of nationalism and community. Serving, protecting.
So what happened with this new ad? Either A) the folks in charge of creating the recruitment advertisements are just really tone deaf, or B) the group they are targeting requires a different message as culture has shifted.
And it’s probably answer B. Consider the context. For an 18 year old, who’s only been politically aware for at most 8 years, what does the world look like? Will they respond to nationalism; Pride in our country, culture, the American flags and apple pie? Heck no, this is all Trump stuff that people have been venomously attacking since they can remember. Nationalism certainly isn’t perceived as a positive theme.
So you can hit on the “What’s in it for me” message, but what about values? What do they perceive as freedom? The only things they’ve seen that they can categorize as freedom fights are the fight for LGBT+ rights and drug legalization. Army isn’t going to touch the latter.
The message, in context, makes sense and is on target. It’s ridiculousness is only a reflection of the direction our culture has been heading in the past decade or so, which is also ridiculous.
