I don’t know if you have seen this obnoxious television ad for the U.S. Army, but dad is at a bar with his son in uniform and dad is just about bustin’ his buttons with pride at how wonderful his son has turned out, obviously thanks to his joining the U.S. Army and says., "You did two things you never did before. You shook my hand – and you looked me square in the eye."
Gee, dad…great that we can now greet each other like strangers at a job interview.
Makes you all warm and fuzzy. If my father had ever said that to me, that would have been my last conversation with him ever. Then again, if I had ever shook my father’s hand and looked him square in the eye, his first response would have been, “what the fuck did you do, and how much money do you need to get out of it?”
I donno…maybe I’m weird. I actually had a relationship with my father that was based on something more than macho posing.
Is this ad supposed to make parents want to ship their kids off to war so they can return as polite. robot strangers?
When you have to join the service just to be able to do it. As I can imagine the Ad implies, you’re not a man until you join the Army, and then go home to shake dads hand and look him in the eye, just to make him proud. Can it not be done without?
One that I never had to join the fuckin’ army and come home and treat my father like some fuckin’ stranger. We used to do something “screwed-up” like “talking”. We were at opposite ends of the political spectrum, but we respected each other. Looking him in the eye and shaking his hand? Give me a break… I have a warmer relationship with the geek behind the counter at Best Buy. What kind of screwed-up relationship do you have with your father?!
I have no opinion on the recruitment ad, not having seen the thing. Recruitment ads tend to lay it on a bit thick, and I can’t think why anybody would be surprised by that.
What would be better?
“Son, you cleaned my bong after you raided my stash! I’m proud to be American!”
So of course the ad is syrupy…
But as for looking your dad in the eye, and shaking his hand, WTF is wrong with doing that? It’s how I was taught. I’m happy to do that now, because my dad’s near 80 and I won’t have him much longer. A firm handshake and a look in the eye, and then we can get down to other father-son things like beer and dirty jokes. It’s not like he sent me away to military school and I have to call him ‘sir’ or anything like that. But I was bloody well taught the value of a proper handshake, and how to do it. Stand up, firm but not bone-cruncher, eye contact. I hate to sound like a “kids today!” whiney redneck, but there should be more of it, IMHO.
I like the recent one for the Air Force, where the kid is strolling down the streat, and casually helps the cop with his laptop that crashed… and the miracle cure is to press F8 on bootup to get into Safe Mode. Works evertime! Then the scene switches to the kid in a fast paced computer enviroment on a jumbo jet. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
Laugh out fucking loud (deserved the entire spelling), give me a fucking break. I was getting into safe mode in the fucking 8th grade. Where’s my jumbo jet, damnit? Who’s writing these stupid commericals? Probably the kid they took in because he knew how to get into safe mode to fix their MS Movie Maker software.
The latest ads for army service here in NZ are using computer-animated figures extolling the benefits of military service. Now, we’re only here in NZ, and we already get accused of pacifism and all sorts of other crap, so there should be nothing to worry about, right? But to me, this ain’t a good sign.
If your ads are using real actors, be grateful. If they start to look like a computer game – worry.
I believe the defence forces have a right to advertise. If you’re going to come down hard on them for over stepping boundaries, then you’ll need to come down hard on 99.9% of the other advertisers.
Is it true that joining the army is appealing to a certain type of misplaced conservatism, when in actual fact, you’ll be a grunt scrubbing dirty dishes in a base in Utah? Yes, quite possibly.
But it’s also then, a fact that Pespi Cola is appealing to a macho sensibility, and instead of doing extreme mountain biking, you’ll probably be a fat nerd in your mother’s basement living on pizza and cola and playing online games.
Or it’s true that the Hummer you buy will only be ever used for driving the kids to school in the suburbs.
I’m not defending the recruitment ads, but I do think there needs to be a broader view taken of this.
I’m relatively certain drinking Budweiser won’t make supermodels suck my weenie, either. I don’t see you complaining about that.
The ad is aimed at young men who want to earn the respect of their fathers and potentially see the army as a means of dealing with that insecurity. And dealing with insecurity is what advertising does.
The UK Royal Marines have something similar: a film of a young recruit going through an assault course. He’s covered in shit, soaked through and looks like he’s run a marathon. He gets pushed through one of those underwater tunnels by a soldier and get his leg caught on a rock underwater, the kids absolutely bricking himself. They keep stopping the tape with “would you quit here?” and then finally at the end “Royal Marines, 99.9% need not apply”.
