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inane rant: US Army marketing

S

Sam334

Golden Member
It's a little uneasy how the United States military has recently (within the last few years) started marketing at the "tech" and "gamer" audience. Case in point:

tv commercial: Cops riding around looking for someone. They find this young kid. The kid says something along the lines of, "Just hit f8 to reboot in safe mode." Ugh. There are others where they compare a jet radar to a video game screen. This goes for the print ads as well; tons of comparisons to video games.

print ads: They are in every video game magazine.

And best of all, America's Army.

What bothers me more are the ads aimed at "gamers." Mainly because a high percentage of video games contain missions/goals/objectives that vicariously condition the player to commit acts of violence. The quicker the death, the better the reward. I'm not generalizing that every game contains these type of scenarios, but a vast amount of them do. So, I'm assuming US military psychologists and marketing planned AA as a trainer for young'uns(duh); hell, it rewards for team based killing and contains all the ideology of the army.

Ok, I'm gonna go play CSS. Heashot! 😀
 
Well the ideal age of a recruit are those that are in the "tech" generation. It only makes sense that they would cater their advertising or whatever to us/them.
 
Who better to recruit into the Army than generally out of shape teenagers with incredible hand-eye coordination and an appalling unsensitivity towards death? 😀

Everyone's gotta recruit somehow.
 
Originally posted by: jtusa
Well the ideal age of a recruit are those that are in the "tech" generation. It only makes sense that they would cater their advertising or whatever to us/them.
Click to expand...

No kidding, it would be kind of a waste if they started running ads in AARP magazine don't you think?
 
Originally posted by: jtusa
Well the ideal age of a recruit are those that are in the "tech" generation. It only makes sense that they would cater their advertising or whatever to us/them.
Click to expand...

Right. It's their tie-in with video games that kind irks me. Makes me feel like a conditioned lab rat. Mmmm, cheese.
 
Uh. Well. Look at all the gaming news sites. You see ALL KINDS OF pictars of young soldiers throwing out gaming references for cameras. Like this. And yet have you ever seen one news story about a dead gamer? Nope. Not one. Gamers = good soldiers, if fvcking showoffs.
 
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Uh. Well. Look at all the gaming news sites. You see ALL KINDS OF pictars of young soldiers throwing out gaming references for cameras. Like this. And yet have you ever seen one news story about a dead gamer? Nope. Not one. Gamers = good soldiers, if fvcking showoffs.
Click to expand...

And there are tons of Army ads all over gaming sites as well. ign, gamespot, 1up, etc
 
Originally posted by: Sam334

print ads: They are in every video game magazine.

And best of all, America's Army.
Click to expand...

Yep. I made a report on this last year in my Propaganda class. If you guys watch G4TV, you'll see tons of these commericals. I actually believed it was a game, until I saw the Join Army ad. Propaganda at its best.

danny~!
 
Well recruiting numbers for the Army show that WE DO have some common sense not to fall for their BS propaganda.
 
Originally posted by: Sam334
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Uh. Well. Look at all the gaming news sites. You see ALL KINDS OF pictars of young soldiers throwing out gaming references for cameras. Like this. And yet have you ever seen one news story about a dead gamer? Nope. Not one. Gamers = good soldiers, if fvcking showoffs.
Click to expand...

And there are tons of Army ads all over gaming sites as well. ign, gamespot, 1up, etc
Click to expand...

Your point? There are 11ty other gaming-related websites out there that don't even advertise. They don't have stories about dead gamers, either.
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Well recruiting numbers for the Army show that WE DO have some common sense not to fall for their BS propaganda.
Click to expand...

Actually recruitment and reenlistment numbers for the different branches are either where they should be or higher, despite what the news tells you. But that's another discussion for another forum(that I avoid like the plague).
 
The army has it's fill of recruits who are athletic and non-tech oriented.

What they are marketing for are the types not likely to join the army (nerds) because they now have tons of tech jobs to fill to support all their newer high tech weapons systems.

WTF is wrong with them looking for brighter folks to fill the ranks?
 
Originally posted by: Amused
The army has it's fill of recruits who are athletic and non-tech oriented.

What they are marketing for are the types not likely to join the army (nerds) because they now have tons of tech jobs to fill to support all their newer high tech weapons systems.

WTF is wrong with them looking for brighter folks to fill the ranks?
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Well recruiting numbers for the Army show that WE DO have some common sense not to fall for their BS propaganda.
Click to expand...
Well, obviously it's BS propaganda...
 
Originally posted by: Sam334
Originally posted by: Amused
WTF is wrong with them looking for brighter folks to fill the ranks?
Click to expand...

Nothing at all. It's just frightening that they are doing it so well.
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Yes, gawd forbid our government actually do SOMETHING effectively.

I see nothing "frightening" about it. I'm actually glad they are spending their recruitment dollars in an effective manner.
 
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