Recruiting Posters, Slogans and Commercials [Merged]
- Thread starter bossi
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Ghost778 said:
I thought it was kind of funny...
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dirky said:
Ummmm yeah...... Okayyyyyyyyyyy. :
Let me chime in here with more bitterness.
We live in a society so wedded to the idea of political correctness that many of us, even some rather intelligent ones, can find it hard to think outside that particular box. The next generation is gonna come along, look back at how bent out of shape we were in an attemp to never offend, to never make anyone feel uncomfortable and ask us, "What the hell were you people thinking?" Much like the hippies, we, as a group, will have to try to explain to them that each generation goes through a group or collective mandness, and political correctness was ours. Much like a witch-hunt in modern times, we tried to weed out and persecute anyone that didn't agree that the most capable person in the world was a baldheaded minority lesbian single mother playing bass in a wheelchair.
Political Correctness can be defined as the "elevation of sensitivity over truth". It runs rampant in the annoying corporate world I inhabit. It's everywhere on TV. You can't get away from it. And unfortunately it runs rampant in the CF.
We are so scared of offending anyone with our recruiting efforts that we turn away those that we are probably needing the most - 19 - 30 yr old well educated men who want to work like dogs for the next 5 years for little recognition other than from their peers in their own units. Men who want to protect their country(God forbid! Does that mean shooting people?) while getting little sleep and eating with their hands thru a fine film of cam paint and diesel exhaust and CLP.
But no. We are constantly bombarded with images of 19 year old 95 pound navy females looking at radar scopes while female voices are overdubbed in girlish tones saying "Strong" - (yeah right - that's why we have two fitness standards - because women are so incredibly strong) "Proud" (if you were proud you would show action from Tora Bora).
Some times I feel like a grouchy old man and I know I must sound like one. But there comes a time when you get sick of swimming up stream in a river of horsesh**t and everytime you open your mouth having to swallow. That's what it's like in the corporate world guys - it's the same all over.
Here's my idea of a recruiting spot. A guy painted up in FFO balancing on the skid of a griffon while the rappel master tells him to go. He swallows, he's nervous, but he does it anyways. He hits the bottom, unhooks and joins his section with his rifle ready. They move out over rough terrain at night using NVGs and avoid enemy patrols. They hit some sort of objective and at the end it shows the section in front of a BBQ laughing together and slapping each other on the back. Then a man's voice says...
"Do more than you ever thought you could. Work harder than you ever thought you wanted to. Find the family you never knew you had. The Canadiam Armed Forces."
Mr. Ted
P.S. Am I good or what?
We live in a society so wedded to the idea of political correctness that many of us, even some rather intelligent ones, can find it hard to think outside that particular box. The next generation is gonna come along, look back at how bent out of shape we were in an attemp to never offend, to never make anyone feel uncomfortable and ask us, "What the hell were you people thinking?" Much like the hippies, we, as a group, will have to try to explain to them that each generation goes through a group or collective mandness, and political correctness was ours. Much like a witch-hunt in modern times, we tried to weed out and persecute anyone that didn't agree that the most capable person in the world was a baldheaded minority lesbian single mother playing bass in a wheelchair.
Political Correctness can be defined as the "elevation of sensitivity over truth". It runs rampant in the annoying corporate world I inhabit. It's everywhere on TV. You can't get away from it. And unfortunately it runs rampant in the CF.
We are so scared of offending anyone with our recruiting efforts that we turn away those that we are probably needing the most - 19 - 30 yr old well educated men who want to work like dogs for the next 5 years for little recognition other than from their peers in their own units. Men who want to protect their country(God forbid! Does that mean shooting people?) while getting little sleep and eating with their hands thru a fine film of cam paint and diesel exhaust and CLP.
But no. We are constantly bombarded with images of 19 year old 95 pound navy females looking at radar scopes while female voices are overdubbed in girlish tones saying "Strong" - (yeah right - that's why we have two fitness standards - because women are so incredibly strong) "Proud" (if you were proud you would show action from Tora Bora).
Some times I feel like a grouchy old man and I know I must sound like one. But there comes a time when you get sick of swimming up stream in a river of horsesh**t and everytime you open your mouth having to swallow. That's what it's like in the corporate world guys - it's the same all over.
Here's my idea of a recruiting spot. A guy painted up in FFO balancing on the skid of a griffon while the rappel master tells him to go. He swallows, he's nervous, but he does it anyways. He hits the bottom, unhooks and joins his section with his rifle ready. They move out over rough terrain at night using NVGs and avoid enemy patrols. They hit some sort of objective and at the end it shows the section in front of a BBQ laughing together and slapping each other on the back. Then a man's voice says...
"Do more than you ever thought you could. Work harder than you ever thought you wanted to. Find the family you never knew you had. The Canadiam Armed Forces."
Mr. Ted
P.S. Am I good or what?
YAY! now you guys understand. ITs all about death and honor, Hard pride and the taste of Nalpalm in the morning. The canadian army should make movies about canadian soldiers doing stuff in the artic, like intercepting russian subs and blowing ice bergs up and yeah totally, kids will go for it.
The army should be protrayed at a super elightemed ultra force that is unstoppable, the only weakness can be something like polar bears instead of kryptonite.
I think i should be the one in charge of recuting. get the bums off the street and into uniform.
BOOYA :-*
The army should be protrayed at a super elightemed ultra force that is unstoppable, the only weakness can be something like polar bears instead of kryptonite.
I think i should be the one in charge of recuting. get the bums off the street and into uniform.
BOOYA :-*
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Poalar Bears?? I was just saying it would be cool. I think that the army should send local units to schools with the tanks and everything and let some kids pick up the C7 and stuff. Like they did in Kingston this past weekend. They should also show Canadian soldiers on patrol in Afghanistan or in combat with a cool song then the slogan One army One Team One Vision appears on screen. I know a lot of people at my school would go for it.
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My old university was littered with posters about how the military would give you this big signing bonus if you joined after you got your degree or if you joined the reserves they would pay you to go to school. I guess they are going with the money drives people to do things type attitude. Not a good way to go that is for sure. Getting students to join to pay off debts is not going to bring quality people into the military.
Pieman
Army.ca Veteran
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Nice post Mr. Ted.
Bitter and Entertaining. ;D
I have also noticed a lot more effort in the advertising campain from the CF. Not to long ago I heard a radio ad which was very new. The ad was one woman talking to some guy about her job in the CF. She convinced the guy to join up because it paid better than his crappy job working whereever...brilliant! I bet that got them lined up at the recruiting center.
I also saw one of the TV ads for the first time yesterday...it was the Navy version it seems, and I thought it was a neat add, showed lots of technical stuff which I am interested in. It grabs one's attention, but it certainly lacks in the 'flare' that Ghost778 was refering to.
There is another ad I saw, which I will post about later...
Bitter and Entertaining. ;D
I have also noticed a lot more effort in the advertising campain from the CF. Not to long ago I heard a radio ad which was very new. The ad was one woman talking to some guy about her job in the CF. She convinced the guy to join up because it paid better than his crappy job working whereever...brilliant! I bet that got them lined up at the recruiting center.
I also saw one of the TV ads for the first time yesterday...it was the Navy version it seems, and I thought it was a neat add, showed lots of technical stuff which I am interested in. It grabs one's attention, but it certainly lacks in the 'flare' that Ghost778 was refering to.
There is another ad I saw, which I will post about later...
I like this. Good posts.
When I was 17 or so, it seems there was a change in advertizing. Instead of the magazine adds showing some grunt covered in mud behind an FN C2, it showed a man and a woman, smiling, holding briefcases, wearing CFs, standing on the steps leading into a 707. The Navy Blue/Khaki/Light Blue had sucessfully Purpleized itself, and the bland had begun ("Blandmaster! March On The Bland!"). Still, people joined for a lot of the right reason's I guess, or at least did a lot of the right things once they got in. I guess they didn't see the magazines those new ads were in.
I recall a story a few years back about the Commanding General of a Texas National Guard formation having begun his military experience as a draftee in Vietnam. The Bundeswehr also gets a lot of their Officers and NCOs from those draftees who choose to stay on. So, the reasons why people end up in the military, and why they stay are often different.
But back to recruiting: You guys are right. Our recruiting lacks CULTURE. By that I mean a military one. How do you make a mud and blood ad to attract grunts without scaring away the 500 series widget techs?
Then you have the social scientists with no operational experience, who understand neither soldiers nor soldiering, telling us what type of people we should be hiring.
And they are wrong.
Thank God for Cadets, probably the only military culture most Canadians are familiar with. If Cadets died out, we could put the whole DND budget into our present methods of recruiting and still fall below the quota.
Tom
When I was 17 or so, it seems there was a change in advertizing. Instead of the magazine adds showing some grunt covered in mud behind an FN C2, it showed a man and a woman, smiling, holding briefcases, wearing CFs, standing on the steps leading into a 707. The Navy Blue/Khaki/Light Blue had sucessfully Purpleized itself, and the bland had begun ("Blandmaster! March On The Bland!"). Still, people joined for a lot of the right reason's I guess, or at least did a lot of the right things once they got in. I guess they didn't see the magazines those new ads were in.
I recall a story a few years back about the Commanding General of a Texas National Guard formation having begun his military experience as a draftee in Vietnam. The Bundeswehr also gets a lot of their Officers and NCOs from those draftees who choose to stay on. So, the reasons why people end up in the military, and why they stay are often different.
But back to recruiting: You guys are right. Our recruiting lacks CULTURE. By that I mean a military one. How do you make a mud and blood ad to attract grunts without scaring away the 500 series widget techs?
Then you have the social scientists with no operational experience, who understand neither soldiers nor soldiering, telling us what type of people we should be hiring.
And they are wrong.
Thank God for Cadets, probably the only military culture most Canadians are familiar with. If Cadets died out, we could put the whole DND budget into our present methods of recruiting and still fall below the quota.
Tom
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The British had a great reality tv show called SAS are you tough enough. They took something like 6 male and 6 female civilians with no military experience and put them through a condensed SAS course in the jungle of Borneo(sp?). When I first saw the commercials i thought they would be really soft on them, but they weren't. They started off with basic trainning stuff, then moved on to jungle survival and basic infantry stuff. They also, were put through interrogation were they were put in stress postions for hours while the instructors(who were all SAS or ex-SAS) tried to get info out of them. The didnt have to cut anyone the first 6 or so episodes because people were quitting or getting hurt too bad to continue. I think it's off the air now but it was on the history channel.
Troopasaurus
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One of the big events that got me wanting to join the army was seeing Exercise Kootnay Castle a couple years ago. They had a tour of the exercise for some of the locals and showed the engineers charging up and down the river after pontoons dropped from US Chinooks. After we got a tour of the field hospital the US had set up then off to see a MGB being set up in a gravel pit. We got off the bus and got a brief introduction of what the engineers were doing before they were attacked. They were using blanks and it was a really impressive display for myself as a civilian and when the enemy threw smoke to cover their withdrawl i knew what i wanted to do. In the end I talked to an ex-cadet friend of mine who had joined and now was doing the recruiting, and here i am today.
I think that a Display kind of like an airshow would produce good results. Use lots of blanks, T-flashes, arty sims etc.
I think that a Display kind of like an airshow would produce good results. Use lots of blanks, T-flashes, arty sims etc.
Great post Mr. Ted. As for the CF advertising from the point of view of a civilian female my opinion is boring - wussy and far too politically correct - not something that would entice me to want to join. What has enticed me to join is the people who are in the CF and other militaries that I have met along the way. Most often I have met these people through sports - racing or climbing or at Comox learning to dangle from helicopters. The selling point of course being that you were getting paid to get challenged and have some fun along the way. The advertising doesn't express that at all. I remember running into a bunch of guys once on Mt. Athabaska from the British army (they were over here training) and I thought wow - nice job if you can get it. Travel and climbing a peak. So in my view ads need major changes in order to attract certain people. BUT... perhaps they don't want to attract those people.
merlane
merlane
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Excellent post Mr. Ted. You should get it all together and pitch it to DND and see what happens...nothing ventured, nothing gained.
In 1997, I was working as a recruiter at CFB Gagetown and the message was much the same....very bland and lack luster. At that time, the CF was being portrayed as a corporate extension of DND somewhat like "just another government dept". There were no real quotas and work ended religiously at 16:30 every day. The other recruiters were good guys, for the most part, but lacked any real motivation to go out there and get some. It was just a job for them, nothing more, nothing less.
Later, I served as a recruiter for a a reserve unit and I litterally worked my rear end off. The unit budget was directly tied to the number of soldiers we had on strength and therefore we needed to have as many warm bodies as we could fit through the door. Amongst our troops, I tried to instill the notion that recruiting was everyone's responsibility and how all soldiers should try and promote the virtues of serving with everyone they came in contact.
I left the CF and joined the Marine Corps. Last year, I spent a month working with a recruiter as part of a TD trip. Let me tell you, 12 and 16 hour days was nothing. Cold contacts in person at the local Wal-Mart was the rule of the day. The Marine Corps recruiting command is the most operational recruiting organization I have ever seen. Technically, a qualified applicant can walk in the door one day and be shipped to boot camp within a week. Although this is not the norm, it can be done.
Marine recruiters are rated on the number of contracts they write. Career progression is directly linked to job performance. That is their incentive. It's their job for 36 months. Not all recruiters volunteers either. Every year the selection list is made up at every command and thousands of Marines are screened and then sent off to school and then on to the street.
The recruiting system in the CF is broken. They should take lesson from our neighbours to the south. Those members of the halls of knowledge at DND should visit recruiting command at Quantico Va and see how it's really done. There is nothing wrong with taking lessons from the US and adapting it to use in Canada.
My understanding right now, is that it can take up to a year to get into the CF (regular or reserve). In the US, once you are accepted, you can set a shipping date up to a year from the time you are found qualified. They have something called the delayed entry program (DEP). Every recruit has to DEP in before going to boot camp. I was in the DEP for a week before I shipped. During this period, recruits sign a contract and are obligated to attend monthly training meeting with their recruiters and other recruits (called poolies-members of the pool of recruits). There, they learn about the Marine Corps and prepare for the rigors of basic training...PT, military history, knowledge etc.. When they finally ship, they are mentally and physically ready to go to training. Attrition rate is low when coming out of boot camp.
This is just an example, but the recruiting system is certainly lacking in the CF. The needs have changed, but the system of acquisition has not. CFRETS runs both the recruit schools and recruiting side of the CF house and for some reason there is a huge disconnect. An operational mindset needs to be adopted.
PJ D-Dog
In 1997, I was working as a recruiter at CFB Gagetown and the message was much the same....very bland and lack luster. At that time, the CF was being portrayed as a corporate extension of DND somewhat like "just another government dept". There were no real quotas and work ended religiously at 16:30 every day. The other recruiters were good guys, for the most part, but lacked any real motivation to go out there and get some. It was just a job for them, nothing more, nothing less.
Later, I served as a recruiter for a a reserve unit and I litterally worked my rear end off. The unit budget was directly tied to the number of soldiers we had on strength and therefore we needed to have as many warm bodies as we could fit through the door. Amongst our troops, I tried to instill the notion that recruiting was everyone's responsibility and how all soldiers should try and promote the virtues of serving with everyone they came in contact.
I left the CF and joined the Marine Corps. Last year, I spent a month working with a recruiter as part of a TD trip. Let me tell you, 12 and 16 hour days was nothing. Cold contacts in person at the local Wal-Mart was the rule of the day. The Marine Corps recruiting command is the most operational recruiting organization I have ever seen. Technically, a qualified applicant can walk in the door one day and be shipped to boot camp within a week. Although this is not the norm, it can be done.
Marine recruiters are rated on the number of contracts they write. Career progression is directly linked to job performance. That is their incentive. It's their job for 36 months. Not all recruiters volunteers either. Every year the selection list is made up at every command and thousands of Marines are screened and then sent off to school and then on to the street.
The recruiting system in the CF is broken. They should take lesson from our neighbours to the south. Those members of the halls of knowledge at DND should visit recruiting command at Quantico Va and see how it's really done. There is nothing wrong with taking lessons from the US and adapting it to use in Canada.
My understanding right now, is that it can take up to a year to get into the CF (regular or reserve). In the US, once you are accepted, you can set a shipping date up to a year from the time you are found qualified. They have something called the delayed entry program (DEP). Every recruit has to DEP in before going to boot camp. I was in the DEP for a week before I shipped. During this period, recruits sign a contract and are obligated to attend monthly training meeting with their recruiters and other recruits (called poolies-members of the pool of recruits). There, they learn about the Marine Corps and prepare for the rigors of basic training...PT, military history, knowledge etc.. When they finally ship, they are mentally and physically ready to go to training. Attrition rate is low when coming out of boot camp.
This is just an example, but the recruiting system is certainly lacking in the CF. The needs have changed, but the system of acquisition has not. CFRETS runs both the recruit schools and recruiting side of the CF house and for some reason there is a huge disconnect. An operational mindset needs to be adopted.
PJ D-Dog
