The British army is specifically targeting young people from working-class backgrounds in a glossy recruitment campaign despite claiming to aim advertising at all socio-economic backgrounds, an internal briefing document seen by the Guardian reveals.

A briefing document on the This Is Belonging campaign spells out that the key audience is 16- to 24-year-old “C2DEs” – marketing speak for the lowest three social and economic groups.

The document also makes it clear that while the campaign is UK-wide, there are “up-weights” to cities in northern England including Manchester and Sheffield and to Birmingham, Belfast and Cardiff.

Army chiefs insist they do not specifically target poorer people from deprived areas, but seek out talented and motivated youngsters of all social classes from across the country. However, the charity Child Soldiers International, which obtained the briefing document, said the strategy set out in them clearly showed this was not true.

This is Belonging advert from British Army. Photograph: PR

Rachel Taylor, the charity’s director of programmes, said: “What’s very clear from the document is that the army is deliberately and strategically targeting young people from deprived backgrounds who have limited options in life.

“It’s not about presenting the military as one of many options. It’s about exploiting people who don’t have a lot else going for them and taking advantage of that lack of opportunity to fill the ranks usually for the most dangerous and badly paid roles.”

On the attention paid to northern English cities, Taylor said: “It’s very clearly targeting the most economically deprived areas with low employment. It’s not as if the MoD [Ministry of Defence] would suggest that they are trying to encourage kids into a great career before they get snapped up by other employers. It’s about going to the areas that are most vulnerable and most desperate and picking kids up from those areas knowing they don’t have a lot else to choose from.”

She said it was also concerning that the document made clear that 16-year-olds were part of the target audience.

“There’s a reason why 16-year-old boys are a great target for recruitment. At that age adolescents are primed into risk-taking behaviour, into wanting to prove themselves as a man, into wanting to establish an identity, a sense of belonging, which is really played upon in the current advertising campaign. Teenage boys want to take risks; they are lured in by the romance, the glamour, the danger. The marketing strategy very cynically takes advantage of that.”

The campaign, launched earlier his year, includes beautifully produced 30-second films showing fictional scenes of young soldiers in various training and combat situations helping and supporting each other, facing difficult challenges with camaraderie and good humour. The films were disseminated via social media, television and cinema.

The media brief from the army and Capita, which works on recruitment for the MoD, describes it as “a new inspirational and motivating creative campaign” getting over the message that recruits will join “a brotherhood and sisterhood formed of unbreakable bonds which … will accept you for you.”

But it adds: “Priority for this campaign is to drive the volume of applicants” and goes on to pinpoint “our core regular target audience” as 16-24 C2DEs.

Under “target audience” the brief says: “16-24, primarily C2DE. Mean household income 10K. High index for social, mobile, cinema. Not heavy TV viewers. Interested in sports and spending time with friends.”

In the same section it mentions other groups used by marketing experts including “M55” – which refers to lower-income homeowners whose adult children are still striving to gain independence, meaning space is limited – and “Municipal Challenge” – urban renters of social housing facing an array of challenges.

A final grouping alluded to is 062 – educated, entertainment-seeking young people privately renting in towns and cities.

The briefing note says the campaign is nationwide in the UK “but with up-weights to specific areas”. It says: “Please see below for highest indexing army locations, please consider to use these across all media channels. Leeds, Cardiff, Cleveland, Belfast, Nottingham, Manchester, Doncaster, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool.”

The campaign has been heralded a success. The advertising agency behind it, Karmarama, said it had resulted in “a dramatic, double-digit increase in completed applications year on year”.

The tactics used by army recruiters were criticised in a report published last week called The First Ambush by Veterans For Peace UK. It said two motives drove army recruitment: the need to escape disadvantage, and the allure of the soldier’s life.

It claimed the British army visits English universities and private schools in the search for future officers, while targeting poorer neighbourhoods for enlisted personnel, particularly in northern cities and in Wales.

The MoD insisted it was incorrect to suggest the This Is Belonging campaign is only targeting working-class and blue-collar audiences and argued that the armed forces provided opportunities for everyone to reach their full potential, whatever their background.

A spokesperson said: “This is a national recruitment campaign designed to reach a broad audience, which is helping our armed forces fully represent the people they help to keep safe. We are proud of the opportunities serving in the armed forces affords young people that aren’t always available elsewhere, from basic literacy education and support for postgraduate degrees, to high-quality accredited training and unique employment prospects.”

A Capita spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting the MoD through this national campaign and future activity as it endeavours to build an army that is fully representative of the people it helps to keep safe.” Karmarama declined to comment.



Figures published by Ipsos Mori last year put the proportion of C2DEs in the UK at around 46%.