CMST 301
Final Paper

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Military recruiting is challenging not only because of the scale of the recruiting mission, but also because of the current environment in which recruiting takes place. Alternatives to military service are more attractive to young people. To meet its human capital needs, the Department of Defense must convince about 200,000 people each year – the majority of them recent high school graduations – to join the military (United States General Accounting Office). To assist in this recruiting effort, the military services advertise on television, on radio, in print, and on the Internet; sponsor sports teams; and participate in other promotional activities.

During World War II, the primary means of advertisement were posters, magazine and newspaper articles, and television and radio spots. Propaganda in the 40’s were predominantly the main source of advertising that the American’s used to increase support for the war and commitment to Allied victory. Their message was unambiguous; Consumers must economize on goods and services, recycle waste and scrap, plant Victory Gardens and can the vegetables, comply with the price controls and rationing laws, and put discretionary income into war bonds. Television, radio and movie theatres were the main sources utilized to get the message out to people in a rapid manner. However, television wasn’t widely available in the 1940’s because it was still a relatively new invention. Those that had money probably had one, but for the most part people had radios. In 1945, there were probably fewer than 10,000 sets in the country. This figure soared to about 6 million in 1950, and to almost 60 million by 1960 (The World Book Encyclopedia 119).
Advertisements were aimed predominantly at men, as the voice of women was just beginning to be heard. It was a belief that the Department of Defense needed to do more to engage the American public about the importance of public service. More values-oriented advertising that stresses the virtues of patriotism, self-sacrifice, and service to country. Acknowledging the need for a stronger military, they took the advice and began revamping their program. The first posters relied simply on text to get their message across. As the war progressed, the posters became much more sophisticated with the incorporation of striking images to convey pro-war messages. Although recruitment was the initial focus for posters, they were also employed to promote patriotism, justify the war, raise money, procure resources, and promote accepted standards of behavior. While other countries were making their own propaganda posters, America stayed positive in their messages. Bright, colorful posters would line the streets, bringing the front line to the home front. The youth wanted to feel like they were going to be a part of something, make their parents proud. They used slogans like “Coming? Then hurry!,” “Victory wait on your fingers,” “We can do it!”, and Disney even allowed the military to portray Mickey Mouse in its propaganda posters.
On the other hand, it didn’t stop at posters. Short clips prior to a movie, radio spots, and television was also being used. After WWII ended, the economy was at an all-time high. People were making more money, and because of that the television started to appear in more homes. In 1957, the Army was the first to utilize a television and radio show as an aid for recruitment. It consisted of 13 episodes a year, each lasting around 15 minutes.
The idea of the propaganda poster faded after that, but magazine articles and newspaper ads were still very prominent. Shifting from the war-bonds and pro-war posters, the military moved to science. Realizing that with the outbreak of television and movie theaters in the country, they needed to change their advertisement campaign in general. The landing on the moon in 1969 changed what the youth were looking for. Kids were now more curious about space ships, rocket fueled jets, and tanks than war-bonds and saving fat. Another campaign was launched, displaying the capabilities of the military. They showed jets and ships, guns and ammo. They showed the technical aspect of the job, instead of the honor, courage and commitment from the years before.

On television, it changed drastically. In the 1940’s, there were only a few channels, and a few televisions. In the 70’s however, over half the population had them in their living room. With the 70’s, it also ended the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and began the war in Vietnam. The military focused on instructional videos, short television spots, and magazine articles. Now, they were using loud music, fast passed action, and showing where you could go. Keeping on the forefront of cutting edge film, they produced some of their most motivating commercials to date.
Traditional media as whole has done a really great job at assisting the military with its recruiting. The use of magazines, newspapers and television has always been a very useful tool in the arsenal of any company trying to get its message into the ears of young children. However, the military quickly realized that the short commercials, and off-chance of people not buying magazines with their advertisements, they moved to Hollywood.
In 2011, Top Gun celebrated its 25th anniversary. Tom Cruise and his devilish smile and perfect hair pushed 16,000 men and women to enlist into the Navy following the year it was released. In other words, Tom Cruise starred in the most expensive and profitable military recruitment film of all time. But, it was not the first. Vietnam and the 1970’s left a bad taste in the mouths of Americans. Kids were burning draft cards, fleeing the country, and even holding massive movements on the White House to protest the war. John Wayne, a well-known actor, was extremely upset with the way the American public was acting against the military. With the help of President Lyndon Johnson, and a high degree of help from the US Military, he shot and starred in one of the most realistic war movies up to date, The Green Barets. Other great movies such as Wings, Casablanca, and even the new Transformers movies are just some examples of Hollywood’s big budge military recruitment films.

With the implementation of the Internet, military recruiting is changing more and more every day. The growth of the internet has dramatically increased the amount of information potentially available to people wanting to join the military. In the last several years, online information about both military career opportunities and institutional aspects of military service has bolstered the resources available to people interested in joining the military. Traditionally, the military has relieved heavily on mass media advertising and targeted outreach by recruiting personnel (Rostker 5).
Digital media has brought a whole new life to the art of recruiting for the military. Social media, as they call it, is something the military is taking very seriously. As always, however, their goal population hasn’t changed. Teenagers aged 13-17 are an online population, using the internet, cellphones, text messaging, instant messaging, etc. daily (Council, 2007). With this being they’re target demographics, the move to social media is the right move.
Out of all the Armed Forces, the Army is taking the leap to social media very seriously. With the use of their current slogan “Army Strong”, they’re directing a campaign specifically towards multi-casting, movies, web blogs, and a microsite, armystrongstories.com that is intended to connect would be soldiers with real soldiers. With more and more 17-24 year olds spending more time at the movies, this also lead the Army to sponsor its first deal with Hollywood, aiding in the production of X-Men, First Class. In May of 2004, Black Hawk helicopters, troops with machine guns and soldiers running through the streets of downtown Los Angeles made citizens run in fear of a terrorist attack; this was all for a promotional event. The government hoped to encourage people to download the game, “America’s Army” free off the Internet. However violent the game was, it was targeted at selling the idea of joining the Army for an exciting life. The government justified this game in stating that there were no “civilians” in the game, only armed militia, therefore no innocent people could ever be killed. Utilizing catchy slogans, and thinking of different ways to recruit our youth into the military has always been priority for the Department of Defense. However, with the growing number of recruits, and a lot less wars being fought, it’s getting increasingly harder to join every branch of the Armed Forces.
Commercials, magazine ads, radio spots and movie theatre spots will always be a tool heavily utilized by the military when it comes to recruiting. With new technology brings new mediums for them to use. Today its video games and the internet, tomorrow it could be ads showing up on our windshield while we’re driving. The average person in the military will tell you that they were recruited by an emotional event in their life, or out of a reaction to a film, article, or story they’ve heard once in their life. With the death of newspapers and magazines coming to a reality, the military has boosted its efforts in joining the social media websites we all visit today.

Sources: * “Television.” The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago. World Book Inc. 2003. Print. * “United States General Accounting Office, Report to the Senate and House Committees on Armed Services, Military Recruiting: DOD Needs to Establish Objectives and Measures to Better Evaluate Advertising’s Effectiveness”. GAO-03-1005. 01 Sep. 2003. Print. * Rostker, Bernard. “I want you! The evolution of the all-volunteer force” Santa Monica: RAND. 2006. Print. * Council, N. C. (2007, February 28th). Teens and Cyber Bullying. Retrieved from ncpc.org: http://www.ncpc.org/resources/files/pdf/bullying/Teens%20and%20Cyberbullying%20Research%20Study.pdf