The new low in advertising...

I think by now you get the gist of this blog of mine. My aim is to get you thinking. I’d go as far to say my aim is to get people wake the hell up. To do that, I need to bring up things that on first instance might look like I’m just being negative, and that might turn some of you off. Let me point out though that unless were exposed to what’s wrong, how are we ever going to make it right?. As someone pointed out to me recently, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” You might say this next story got me outraged, particularly as I’ve just got back from an event where I got to meet a bunch of ‘wounded warriors”, i.e. Iraq/ Afghanistan war vets, whose lives has been literally blown apart. None of them looked any older than 21…

Anyway, here’s something to think about:

I don’t what you think about the war, but I’d like to know what you think about this. According to Bloomberg.com, the Pentagon has taken to using a kid’s movie (Transformers) to recruit our kids into a military career. Yep, you heard me right. First off it was advertising in video game magazines; because that will get you ready to go toe to toe with a guy who’s just seen half his family wiped out as a result of “collateral damage”… Now though, we’ve taken it a step further. According to Lt Col Paul Sinor, this film will appeal to both potential recruits and their parents, who are “centers of influence” for enlistment decisions…. By showing kids how cool it is to fly around in machines (i.e. US military aircraft/ vehicles placed within the film) blowing stuff up; they are hoping little Mikey will get all fired up to go over and get his piece of the action.

Seriously folks; its time to wake up. If you can send Johnny off to see Transformers after reading about this, I have to point something out to you. In the act of giving your money to the maker of this film (which, by the way, you’re doing if you’re paying to see it), you’re saying it’s OK for them to market war to our kids. And hey, don’t give me that crap about 18 year olds being old enough to make up their own mind. The 18 year old demographic will indeed flock to see this film because it’s just a cool film. But Transformers, the toys that is, aren’t toys for 18 year olds; they’re market is way younger than that. The Pentagon knows they might see some kind of increase in recruits this year and next as a result of this film, but that’s not really what they’re looking for.  Nope, their after you’re little Jonny or Jeanie, and they want them thinking about signing up before they’re even in high school…