AMC 2006: Marketing, minors and the military

Coverage from sessions at the 2006 Allied Media Conference

I caught just the tail end of this fascinating session.

The Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) presented information on how the US Military hooks new recruits.

I found out about JAMRS, (Joint Advertising Marketing and Research Studies) the Department of Defense marketing database used to collect information on potential recruits.The Army has also released a free, high quality video game – it cost the US $16 million to produce – that glorifies combat and ignores the costs of war.

“There's no reality here,” POG member Bridget Colvin says.

She also presented information on myfuture.com which offers a free career aptitude test to students and then, after the test there is an inducement for students to take the ASVAB, Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. This tests only a student's current proficiencies, not what they're interested in exploring or what they might be good at with training.

Colvin also presented several other examples of pseudo-news stories that ended with requests for personal information, for information on friends and promoted the fitness, opportunities for travel and adventure and college money that can be gained through the military.

There were also reports among the audience of military marketing at movie theaters, offering free itunes songs and DVDs for kids willing to watch military promotional films.

I reported on the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center's Counter-Recruitment drives in Cincinnati earlier this year. Similar

“There is no job worse than the military,” Jeremy Shenk member says. “The pay sucks, you're on call 24-hours a day, they can shoot you – technically – if you try and quit.”

“We're anti-militarism,” Colvin says. “How voluntary is an army where you don't have all the information before you join.”

One of the POG members mentioned, after the session, the the Justice Department has bee spying on them as POG is considered a threat to national security.