Thursday, September 6, 2007

free rap concert! sike nah, but you can join the army though.

Okay, so it's no real secret that the armed forces take a huge chunk of their population (no, not the officers and not the generals and ish, the recruits that end up on the front lines) from the bottom of America's socio-economic ladder. And of course, although the fighting is being done across the world instead of across the street, America is in a war (which people seem to be forgetting all the time, hell, I'm guilty of it) so of course recruitment efforts have been ramping up more and more as support for the war in Iraq (and subsequent enlistments) has been dwindling. What else has been increasing? The Army's attempt to be hip, youthful and overwhelmingly Black. Take a look at this screen shot of their website..
Black guy, front and center, and no, the picture does not alternative to show other soldiers of different races, ages or of another sex. Mm, and do you see that iPod bribe in the bottom left corner? Ridiculous. The only thing that really drove me to go to the Army's website was the fact that while I was watching BET the past few days I've noticed a lot of GoArmy commercials, and have also noticed that these commercials tend to focus only on Black people.
I feel like before they used to be a little more subtle about it, but I guess they figure they're just gonna go for it full force.
Next thing you know, they'll be offering promotions like "Free chain on enlisting! Rim for a Friend- with each friend you bring to the army you'll get one 26" chrome spinner!"


..okay sorry, I know I'm wrong for that lol.

1 comment:

kaya said...

AND for those of us who like to get to the movie theater before the previews even start, in chicago at least they're airing this "special" on the army that features this black dude proclaiming "I VOLUNTEERED to do this. i understand exactly what i signed up for. it's a committment and i'm proud to serve."

a bit heavy-handed, no? think they might be trying to compensate for something?