US Army
Listen, before you start emailing this article to your friends as another example of the liberal media’s crusade to destroy America (does a blog even count as “liberal media”?), please understand that I’m not being willfully obtuse with this question to make a larger point. This is an actual question that occurred to me last night and I thought it would make a compelling discussion topic. Please note: I’m not some Boris Badenov crypto-communist hoping that by merely asking the question, I’ll be able to undermine the American military machine. I support the troops as much as anybody who isn’t Lee Greenwood.
All that being said, last night I was watching Monday Night Football when one of those “Army Strong” ads aired. It was typical of the series: it stressed the pride and discipline necessary to be a US soldier and how joining the army would make you a better person (a video follows after the jump). These are all ideas that anybody would agree with: there is no higher form of service to your country than being a soldier. They’ve earned that pride.
The commercial showed lots of training. It showed lots of saluting. It showed lots of well-built young men and women standing tall in their uniforms. You know what it didn’t show? Fighting. No fighting whatsoever. I couldn’t help but think this was some false advertising…
It must be hard to fight an ongoing and unpopular war with an all-volunteer army. To recruit now means you’re not asking people to join up to defend this country should a war occur, you’re asking them to sign up with the foreknowledge that by doing so, they’ll be spending a good chunk of the next few years fighting in a desert. I don’t envy the recruiters.
It stands to reason, then, that the ads would want to stay away from this fact as much as possible. Why remind the people watching your ad about the biggest negative of your product? Focus on the positive and deal with the pesky “war” later on, preferably after basic training. It’s Advertising 101 and you can’t fault the logic in that.
Except…
We’re not talking about dead pixels on a laptop screen or unrealistic gas mileage estimations, we’re talking about human lives. Joining the marines is a lot more than climbing a really high mountain and wearing a neat-o sword, it’s about risking your life for the benefit of your fellow Americans. Fighting a war means taking mortal risks; is it fair to gloss over these risks when advertising for that war?
I guess the main argument you can make for not including those risks in the marketing is that is that they’re understood. People already know all about the horrors of war; it’s common knowledge! You don’t have to warn people in a car advertisement that 60,000 people die every year in car accidents.
To be sure, no one thinks war is easy. But I’m not so sure that people — especially the teenage boys these ads are meant to appeal to — are as well versed as we think they are in what war actually is. I’m not a veteran (indeed, I’m the kind of coward that John Wayne would hit with his hat at some point in a movie), but in talking with veterans, I know enough to understand that I don’t have a tenth of the knowledge I think I have. Veterans all say the same thing about warfare: movies and TV and books don’t do it justice; if you weren’t there, you can’t hope to understand it by proxy.
So, are the risks really understood? Can the commercials asking for service in good conscience ignore the pain that service entails? These commercials air on behalf of us, the American people. Are you okay asking young men and women to volunteer to fight a war for us in this manner?
When prescription drugs are advertised, their makers are forced to list all their side effects. If people are going to make a choice involving their body, the thinking goes, they should do so with the full knowledge of what harm might come to it. Why do the makers of Singulair have to tell you that taking their drug carries with it a minor chance of eczema while the makers of the US Army ads get to gloss over any and all of the downside of joining up?
Don’t thinking I’m making light of the situation. I’m just trying to understand this on a philosophical level and I’d like your help. Is there a point I’m overlooking? Are the consequences of instituting a draft so dire that it justifies a little bit of lying in the recruitment ads? What are your feelings on this?
Clacked by Jay Black 
on Sep 23, 2008 @ 12:28 EST5EDT
An excellent question, Jay. (FWIW, you and I probably sit at the different end of the political spectrum, and I don’t mind the question).
I’m not a veteran either, and I agree with your point that we don’t know what we don’t know. So what difference would the fine print make? These kids are watching the same movies and TV shows that you mention. I think, thanks to Saving Private Ryan, that we’ve gotten a lot more accurate of a portrayal of warfare in recent years, and if that’s not going to be a warning, nothing really will. I had always considered, and thought about after the fact, going into the service. Watching We Were Soldiers cured me of that. I know I couldn’t do it, but I have all the respect in the world for those that stand a post for all of us that don’t.
I don’t think a warning on these ads would make a difference in the world.
My husband retired from the US Navy after serving 20 years, my sister in law is working on year #8 in the Army and my nephew just finished AIT school in the Army as well, so I guess that makes me qualified as any to respond.
I don’t believe anyone recruited as a teenager has a clue what will be expected of them after they are recruited. My hubby was told he would be working with state of the art tracking equipment doing essential work in the navy. That was true, but they left out the part of having to chip paint and mess crank the first 2 years on top of all his other duties. They gloss over the fact that you will be sharing a berthing with 40 other men in a space roughly the size of a garage that reeks of feet and ass, but if the recruiters shared those insights do you think anyone would join?
I believe new recruits are aware of the chance of something really bad happening to them if they are sent to the Middle East. What I don’t think they are aware of is the inherent danger of working in what is basically a high industrial job that happens to use weapons. Sailors are lost at sea during unreps, soldiers are crushed by heavy equipment being moved, Coasties drowning during training far more often that you are probably aware of simply because these things don’t make the national news.
Godspeed to all who are entering service and Bravo Zulu to all who have served.