By Michael Reagan (son of President Reagan)
The U.S. Army has learned that if you torture data long enough it will confess to anything.
“Data-based” ad campaigns whipped up by the purple-haired prodigies at the militaries outside ad agencies only appealed to woke youngsters who had no intention of joining the Army in the first place.
The commercials were strong on appealing to same-pronoun marriages and families, along with the rest of the consonant crusader market.
The ads, however, were weak on appealing to someone who might actually want to join the Army.
The Daily Caller Foundation walks us through some of the campaign attempts.
In 2019 the Army tried the “What’s Your Warrior” campaign, “but it’s belligerent overtones turned away some hopeful audiences.”
Probably because “speech is violence” crowd isn’t too receptive to communication from an organization that is built around physically defending America when events warrant.
In 2022 another tack was tried: “The Army doubled down on messaging about benefits and career opportunities available to soldiers in 2022 and into 2023,” most of which didn’t involve toting a rifle.
You’ll note the lack of patriotism as a motivating factor in either ad campaign.
A potential recruit looking for work perks and a uniform would be better off joining the U.S. Postal Service.
No moving around and you’ll be dodging dogs instead of bullets.
In all fairness, the job was tough for ad agencies.
It’s really difficult to write ad copy for a population demographic one is leery of.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., summed the result up nicely:
“The Army’s identity-based marketing has been a disaster for recruiting, which is why they’re shifting away from it. . . . The Army and every other branch needs to focus on appealing to all Americans, regardless of their political beliefs or background.”
Elaine Donnelly, of the Center for Military Readiness, agreed,
“Left-wing trends in the military’s education and personnel policies — including emphasizing inclusion of LGBTQ+ servicemembers, doubling down on outreach to minority communities, and teaching CRT and giving pronoun advice at the military academies — to support ‘diversity as a strategic imperative’ could cause conservative, often white families to believe they ‘are not welcome or appreciated in the military.'”
Those commercials “forgot that the primary market for Army recruiting is young men from traditional families, looking for a challenge. Last year’s recruiting crisis was partially fueled by that colossal mistake.”
Which resulted in the Army missing its recruiting objective for 2022 by a giant 25%.
That’s why the Army has decided to solve the recruiting crisis by adopting a tried-and-true adverting tactic: bait and switch. . . . (read more on NewsMax)
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