Green-Eyed Monster

[greygirlbeast]

Another eight hours last night, after a nap late yesterday. And I do feel better. Today, I'll ease myself back into work.

Yesterday was so wonderfully humdrum that there's really no way to make an entry out of it.

Thanks to Chris Walsh (chris_walsh) who wrote to let me know that the US Army is dropping the whole silly "Army of One" thing. Now maybe people

Comments

[oneirophrenia]

ARMY STRONG!

TANK SMASH!

RAAAARRRRRR!

What the fuck...is this a recruiting drive aimed at Marvel superheroes with extreme anger-management problems and mental retardation?

[stsisyphus]

Holy crap I nearly choked on my cocoa. But this was totally what I was thinking when I read that "slogan".

If I were the Army, I would have fired the marketing firm that came up with this. Then again, the demographic of "recruiting-age Americans" probably presupposes that you'd need to use monosyllables. I don't know if this says more about the deplorable state of our armed forces, or about the kids they are trying to recruit. Even dropping an "equals" sign between the two terms would have helped, but might have suggested that there was some kind of educational requirement.

[oneirophrenia]

That's prettymuch my exact take on the slogan as well. If they really want to appeal to the lowest demographic, they might as well just use little pictograms or drawings: a doodle of a guy in a red-white-and-blue helmet shooting a turbaned guy off a camel.

As an English teacher, I find it semantically questionable that they didn't just put an "equal" sign in between the two words as you noted--at least then the meaning would've been a great deal clearer!

[stsisyphus]

Actually, if they were going to plumb popular culture, they should have used Grimlock from the Transformers ("ME GRIMLOCK, ARMY OF ONE!!") - particularly so they could tie into Michael Bay's 2007 adaptation. The military-industrial complex is so tired, why not just skip to the lucrative military-entertainment complex?

Or even better, since kids these days don't understand references to Hitler or Nazi Germany, the DoD could just position Megatron as the key boogeyman of the War on Terror. Army: Die for Energon, sucker!

Personally, I think "Army: Die, Die, Die" would attract more recruits.

I think that implicit fact is why they can't get recruits.

[nykolus]

Speaking of Marvel, all I could think of was 'hulk smash!'

And, apparently i'm at 9% envy. hmm... better than I would've guessed. i thought i were a more jealous sort.

[kraorh]

In its battle to win the hearts and minds of recruiting-age Americans, the Army is replacing its main ad slogan - "An Army of One" - with one it hopes will pack more punch: "Army Strong."

Personally, I think "Army: Die, Die, Die" would attract more recruits.

I don't know if you were trying to be funny, but let me assure you, you were not. It may be because I know people who've served, and one guy who may have to go back to Iraq in the near future. But this was offensive. There's so much that can be said that's critical of the war, or even the military, and in ways that are humorous. This was not one of them.

[robyn_ma]

Army: Killing and Torturing Non-White Men, Women and Children And Getting Away With It Since Day One

...nah, not snappy enough...

[edwarddain]

Too bad the Marines already have the catchy slogan of, "Let me see your killing face!"

(At least I think that's from a Marine move, Full Metal Jacket IIRC)

Can you imagine the ad campaign? With R. Lee Ermey bellowing?