thedrifter
10-11-05, 07:32 PM
October 17, 2005
A jewel of an ad
The Marine Corps’ first new TV recruiting ad in four years could have tried to put a pretty face on reality and focused on college benefits and young people confidently operating high-tech equipment and learning skills for future careers.
But at a time when enlistment rates are faltering and the war in Iraq shows no sign of ending, the Corps instead is going back to basics.
The new ad, called “Diamond,” sets images from boot camp against the backdrop of a diamond being cut, so we see the civilian being molded, sharpened and hardened into a warrior.
Not since 1971, when the Corps’ first recruiting commercial juxtaposed recruit training against the song “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” have we seen the rigors of recruit training take center stage in the Corps’ pitch to the public. Commercials throughout the ’90s instead leveraged medieval imagery and mythic battles to convey the transformation message.
Short of combat, nothing could be more intimidating to a potential recruit than gritty boot camp images. This ad shows the screaming, sweating, stress and, in the end, pride in becoming a Marine.
The Corps’ longtime ad agency, J. Walter Thompson, crafted the concept after speaking not only with potential recruits, but with parents — an important change, because overcoming parents’ objections has become an increasingly significant part of recruiters’ jobs since the war in Iraq began.
The new commercial seeks to reassure those parents by saying, in essence, “Give us your kids, and we’ll shape them into something you can be proud of.”
And that, Marines, is a message you can be proud of.
Ellie
A jewel of an ad
The Marine Corps’ first new TV recruiting ad in four years could have tried to put a pretty face on reality and focused on college benefits and young people confidently operating high-tech equipment and learning skills for future careers.
But at a time when enlistment rates are faltering and the war in Iraq shows no sign of ending, the Corps instead is going back to basics.
The new ad, called “Diamond,” sets images from boot camp against the backdrop of a diamond being cut, so we see the civilian being molded, sharpened and hardened into a warrior.
Not since 1971, when the Corps’ first recruiting commercial juxtaposed recruit training against the song “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” have we seen the rigors of recruit training take center stage in the Corps’ pitch to the public. Commercials throughout the ’90s instead leveraged medieval imagery and mythic battles to convey the transformation message.
Short of combat, nothing could be more intimidating to a potential recruit than gritty boot camp images. This ad shows the screaming, sweating, stress and, in the end, pride in becoming a Marine.
The Corps’ longtime ad agency, J. Walter Thompson, crafted the concept after speaking not only with potential recruits, but with parents — an important change, because overcoming parents’ objections has become an increasingly significant part of recruiters’ jobs since the war in Iraq began.
The new commercial seeks to reassure those parents by saying, in essence, “Give us your kids, and we’ll shape them into something you can be proud of.”
And that, Marines, is a message you can be proud of.
Ellie