Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on May 19, 2021, 05:07:51 PM
-
Which looks cooler? :laugh:
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/05/19/pick-your-fighter-heres-a-russian-army-recruitment-ad-and-a-us-army-recruitment-ad-mashed-together/
I laughed, but geez, it's becoming embarrassing at this point.
-
Sooner or later we will clash with the Chinese and/or Russians. If that happens in 2022 or later, we will get our asses handed to us by the numbers.
Well, maybe not by the Chinese. Biden is so thoroughly beholden to them he would likely roll over and give them whatever they demand.
-
I feel compelled to point out that the female you all are mocking in this and the other thread is an *actual US Army Soldier*. Do we know the Russian isn't an actor, like most commercials?
There was actually a memo and a story a while back about finding real soldiers for the new ads.
Sorry not sorry that the actual reality of Soldiers in the field doesn't live up to your civilian fantasies.
-
dogmush, who has mocked the soldier in this ad?
No one. And that's not that point. Please summarize the point being made about the contrast between the two ads. Do you understand it?
-
I know that in the 1980s, the ads were all service members...
Today?
I'm wondering about the animator...
-
I feel compelled to point out that the female you all are mocking in this and the other thread is an *actual US Army Soldier*. Do we know the Russian isn't an actor, like most commercials?
There was actually a memo and a story a while back about finding real soldiers for the new ads.
Sorry not sorry that the actual reality of Soldiers in the field doesn't live up to your civilian fantasies.
I'm sure the Russians are actors, or maybe they found a bunch of telegenic Spetsnaz. The individuals in the two ads were not my focus, rather the message. The US soldier didn't need to be a trigger puller. They could have focused on somebody that analyzes satellite imagery, or works in a motor pool, and the things they do in the army.
IMO, "my two moms and their wedding" like the themes of the latest CIA ads, are as problematic to the military as the woke policies of any big business, or local government where the mayor only speaks to people if they are the right color.
As a lowly civilian, maybe my opinion on how we portray our military, and the kinds of things our military focuses on doesn't count as much. At least a couple of the other members who have responded here are veterans though, and it appears they at least generally seem to agree that the ad is heading down a bad road.
-
Sorry not sorry that the actual reality of Soldiers in the field doesn't live up to your civilian fantasies.
Isn't the specific purpose of these advertisements to appeal to civilian fantasies in order to lure in new recruits? I guess it just depends on which civilian fantasy you want to appeal to.
-
deleted
-
Sorry not sorry that the actual reality of Soldiers in the field doesn't live up to your civilian fantasies.
Mixed sex units also don't live up to the performance of all male units. Adding female to combat roles makes the military worse.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2015/09/10/mixed-gender-teams-come-up-short-in-marines-infantry-experiment/
-
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.
-
This is CNN
The Lead CNN
@TheLeadCNN
Sen. Ted Cruz pushes Russian propaganda, mocks U.S. recruiting ad for ‘a woke, emasculated military’ @abbydphillip and @niaCNN discuss
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/05/22/cnns-jake-tapper-accuses-sen-ted-cruz-of-pushing-russian-propaganda-with-that-army-recruiting-ad/
-
Looks like the U.S. Army doesn't like to be criticized. They turned off comments on their woke recruiting video ... because the response was overwhelmingly negative.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/us-army-shuts-comments-woke-youtube-videos-barrage-mockery/
-
In all of my years in service (Army) and those spent around your men and women who decide to serve, I have never talked to anyone who said "I saw a commercial on TV and that's why I decided to sign up." Now, I'll admit that I did know a couple of young men who were looking to go military and went Marine Corps because "the commercials show you Marines are bad ass." Well, two made it. The third failed his drug screen when he reported and got his contract cancelled.
-
The sad thing is if they would have left out the family stuff and just highlighted a young woman going for a technical career in the Army, that wouldn't be all that bad. The Army has lots of people who are not infantry or special forces. The Army has been doing ads like that for years.