Commercials and the Armed Forces: Recipe for Disaster

A single mother sits across from her teenaged son at her kitchen table, holding a cup of coffee. She asks him about his day, and he replies, while absent-mindedly fiddling with a stack of papers, “It was good.” The mother notices that he seems to be struggling to tell her something, so she prods by saying: “Did something happen today?” He says, “Yes, something real good happened.” From that point, he slowly pushes the stack of papers toward his mother and begins to tell her that he wants to join the Army. He tells her all about how the Army will help pay for his college studies to become an engineer. He lovingly acknowledges that his mother has been footing all of the responsibility for him. “I’ll get paid to go to school while doing something I can be proud of.” Check. Then he says, with a heartbreaking smile—“Besides, it’s time for me to be the man.” Checkmate.

Every parent fantasizes about having such a wonderfully calm and mature conversation such as this one with their grown teen. However, this is the beginning of the snare that entraps many of the young men and women who rise from their seats in front of their television sets, kiss their loved ones goodbye, and march off with their duffel bags full of honor to war. The snares are called “commercials”. They are ten to thirty second video clips that can make or break a budget, change your mind, and in this case, change your life. Young men and women are hypnotized by the dramatic music, the physically fit actors running hard obstacle courses, and the dramatic voice-over that says something like: “You could be a part of history. You can make a difference.” Or even more compelling, no voice, just a bunch of flashing captions after every clip showing a pilot saving an aircraft from a bad landing, a computer technician fixing the military’s database, or some acrobat swinging from a bungee cord through a mass of trees like Tarzan. Not one of these ads shows that many of those soldiers who piloted those planes have watched through their aircraft windshield as another plane, more likely than not carrying their friends, exploded at the hands of enemy fire. Do the marketing teams that create these ads account for the growing trauma inflicted on the soldiers who raced off to war after falling for the joyful scenario on their televisions?

According to a report dated on July 1, 2004 in the NY Times, entitled “The Reach of WarThe Soldiers”, by Anahad O’Connor, one out of every six soldiers who fought in the Iraq war after the September 11 attack on New York City returned home displaying signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 6,000 soldiers were surveyed, divided into two groups: those who were stationed to fight in Afghanistan and those stationed to fight in Iraq. Seventeen percent of the Iraq-stationed troops, and eleven percent of the troops stationed in Afghanistan, suffered major depression and emotional post-traumatic stress. It’s a damaging problem that in my opinion, the government is quick to create and even quicker to ignore. Probably more frightening than the hypnotic effects of the Armed Forces commercials is the almost blatant disregard the soldiers seem to suffer once their services are no longer needed.

A soldier named Tyson Johnson was seriously injured by a motor blast during his tour and forced to leave the military early. The Army billed him $2,700 for repayment of an enlistment bonus because he’d only served two-thirds of his 3-year time. In addition, when he was unable to pay, they turned his account over to credit reporting agencies and saddled him with bad credit, and he wound up living in his car because the Army made it impossible for him to land an apartment.

He’s just one of the hundreds of injured soldiers that have been victimized by the audacious ingratitude of the U.S. Armed Forces. Another soldier told his story on a late night news program about having had his leg amputated due to an explosion. He, too, was discharged early with honors, and returned home to find his disability check accompanied by an invoice for his uniform, and for artillery he had either not returned or not cleaned before leaving the tour. That amount was deducted from his check. The constant exposure on the battlefield to death, torture, and toxins are additional perils and inhumane risks they take to fight a war without truly understanding why the political talks between the powers that be wound up out of the board room and onto the battlefield in the first place. Thanks, Uncle Sam.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I do not take the issue of National Security, nor the pressure on the government to maintain it, lightly. September 11, 2001 was a horrific event that caused senseless carnage back then, and grief, heightened paranoia and trauma that will never die. But equally concerning is that the power of commercials is astounding, and it’s frightening. No longer are commercials simply trying to reach the housewife with an expensive vacuum, or the child with the expensive remote-controlled toy. They are trying to reach the idle, insecure, and unpopular teen with the manipulated perception of the cool, hip fad of war. Join the Army and be all you can be; help them find their way in the Marines, and if we don’t wise up and think before we leap on those commercials, the next one will say: Join any branch of the Armed Forces and be on your own.

Until next time, God bless you.

Kaydee

Read Anahad O’Connor’s article here: