A Lesson From Sweden

As a senior in high school, I got one of those cold recruitment calls from the Army (or maybe it was the Marines) that every 17-18 year old gets.  I politely told the guy that I wasn't interested.  But quotas aren't made to be unfilled, so the recruiter set his voice to its Smuggest Setting and replied, "Are you afraid of guns?"  Yep.  You nailed it, guy.  Master of perception, you are.  Good to know that our Armed Forces have the best and brightest public relations people at the helm on recruitment.  And during two wars, no less. 

That's what I wanted to say to him, anyway.  Only thought of it later, after being so taken aback that I could only mutter something like "No. Gotta go. Bye."  I still regret not having the better retort on hand.  The French have a phrase for that situation--it literally translates as "the wit of the staircase."  But this isn't about the French--it's about the Swedes.

That there's a recruitment ad for the Swedish Armed Forces.  Here's another one along the same lines.  This series of ads has won some awards and been mildly popular in some corners of the Internet.  If you're an American, however (and most of you reading this are), you're probably wondering, "How could they say that about their own military?  And where's the super soldier science fictiony heroics?  Where's the lava monster?"

Ah, that's better.  Was starting to feel disoriented with all that down to Earth, relateable stuff about acquiring real world skills for real world jobs.  Thank you, lava monster.  And thank you, Kid Rock and 3 Doors Down for over-achieving on your usual manipulative pablum with those ads that play before movies, which are likely their own overlong, overblown, unrealistic ads for military service.  Or, in an admittedly ingenious ploy, an overlong but more realistic ad for military service.  Between them, Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich have melted our collective, what do you call them?  Brain bones.  It's hard for us to get stimulated by anything less than adrenaline-fueled, patriotism-exploiting action shots, with lots of quick-cutting to distract us from how bad the CGI (CGI!) is.  So when the military constantly needs fresh blood (literally), it has to resort to some really stupid gimmicks, just like any other organization. 

Yes, the world of advertising is anything but subtle and accurate.  But shouldn't we expect something better out of our armed forces?  You know, something that appropriately captures the things we make them do for us and doesn't mythologize them into something that makes us think they're always there, ready to bomb whomever we need in order to advance our short-term political interest?  Or is this the price we pay for living in an era of war and mass communication in a post-draft society? 

As a final comparison, look at this ad for the British Royal Marines: 

It's not much less subtle than our ads, but you can taste the tonal difference, can't you?  This is not glamorous, it is not fantastical, it is not romantic.  It doesn't make promises.  It tells you up front that you will not be able to do this, don't bother applying, we don't even want you.  The only people still standing are those who can do this (or think they can) and they will push themselves for their country.  Those of us left behind are legitimately impressed and appreciative of the tools we have in them.  "Let's make sure we don't waste these tools on any vanity wars," we say.  "You know, unless our mates in America insist we should."