Navy recruiting pop-up reflects the New American mentality

[Zomby Woof]

When I was a kid in the early 70's, my Dad was a Navy recruiter, and the slogan then was "Go Navy". Rather benign, eh? This was the height of Vietnam too. Now, it's "Accelerate Your Life". Sure... yeah. Kick butt. Kill Arabs!

So now, commiserate with our SUV and Hummer culture, phallocentric recruiting ads are the new wave. I strongly subscribe to the view that the more phallic the culture, the more impotent we truly are - socially, mentally, culturally, spiritually, and intellectually. Fascism relies on sleek and phallic imagery like the ad above.

Go Navy?! How quaint. Kick butt and kill those ay-rabs instead! :eyes:

[frank frankly]

1. oh no

please say that isn't real

made my eyes water

we may be doomed.

[Amerpie]

2. I wonder

how accelerated the lives of those young people killed on the USS Cole were?

BTW - my only son is a petty officer on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. He's antiwar.

[outinforce]

3. The Connection?

I confess that I have not read an analysis of American culture (or any other culture, really) that included an analysis of just how "phallic" our culture is. My bad, I suppose.

So, I suppose I am just one of the terrbily unenlightened people (or is it sheeple?) that inhabit these United States. Forgive me, please. I do so want to learn all the myriad ways to critically examine our society and culture and to discover, as you appear to have, just how fascisitic a people we are.

Perhaps because I am a white male who escapes the "whtie male privilege" only by vitrue of the fact that I am gay, I am having a real tough time seeing the connection between "Accelerate Your Life" and and "phallic imagery".

Could you perhaps enlightend me?

I do so need to learn this stuff.

[Snow]

4. Wouldn't it be more interesting to say something like "I disagree"

and then make your counterpoints, than trying unsuccessfully to tear down his/her argument with some pointless (other than being nasty) junior-high level sarcasm?

[Snow]

5. Dupe

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[Name removed]

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[Zomby Woof]

7. check the vernacular

"Kick butt" and "taking names is optional". Tough talk, cartoonish even. Making killing lighthearted video-game fun instead of the grim reality of what they really expect of you. DEHUMANIZATION. The gun is aimed at what is presumably an Iraqi. I will give it its due - it goes the direct route with the killing-is-fun and life-affirming route.

Perhaps you should read about the culture and be more aware of language and propaganada techniques.

I think the "Go Navy" slogan was a product of a more innocent time, when serving the country meant something more than ass-whoopin'. The "accelerate" slogan hints at opportunity the way "Go Navy" did, but of course, using the "faster, better" mindset. Vietnam cured us for a while, until Reagan came along, and made the U.S. safe for fascism.

Better do some homework, friend. This is a sick culture we live in under Bush.

[outinforce]

10. The Vernacular?

Do you mean like what I see on some t-shirts? "Grrrrls Kick BUTT!"

Is that what you mean by "phallic"?

Or is the fact that we are a sick, phallic culture better illustrated by the fact thaty some folks like to light up a cigar (and some even do the most interesting things with cigars and certain orifices) in celebration of a victory? Is that what you mean when you say that Reagan made the US safe for fascism? Did eight years of Bill Clinton (cigars and all) do nothing to undo all that Reagan did to make the US safe of fascism?

I think I hear you saying that somehow this un-named and unidentified "phallic" nature of our culture has given rise -- or is the result of, I'm not too sure which it is -- a tendency to dehumanize.

But I still am not sure I am getting your point.

And I did not realize that you and I were friends.

Perhaps if you really knew be better, you'd reconsider.

[Zomby Woof]

14. I call you friend

To be polite and civil. But I can respect your wishes and retract it with no further comment.

[Name removed]

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[Zomby Woof]

25. Monica!

Wow! Long time no see... :hi: :donut:

[Mandate My Ass]

27. HI, ZW

I've been taking more names than kicking butt lately, not very phallic of me I know but I can assure you it's not for the lack of instigation.

Ciao, Zomby! :toast:

[Zomby Woof]

LOL!

:-)

[outinforce]

19. Thanks For Your Post

I must have you confused with another DU poster who, I think, makes a point of saying that he enjoys being rude and uncivil -- especially with people who have a different point of view from his. (Can you imagine anyone like that??)

And, just to be clear -- I don't think that I ever stated my wishes. If you desire to be my friend, then that is cool with me. I only suggested that if you knew me a bit better, you might want to re-consider.

[2Design]

6. the mentality of bush matches the ad

These are the types of voters bush and co. is going after. If you listen to several of the right wing, this is the way they talk. It is the bully mentality.

When Howard Dean talked about getting the confederate flag waving pick up truck guys to become democrats, this is the mentality that the repubs court and encourage. Howard was appealing to a deeper core. The press raise 'hell' with him. Yet this is the menality, the fire the repubs stoke.

Much of the south, the anti gay, anti women, have this mentality.

This is why this country is in trouble with the world, this mentality can only bring disaster.

We need to be at home, in the usa, fixing the gang wars, drug wars, and poverty on our own streets. We are taking our failures as a society and bringing those to other lands.

That 'bring em on' mentality does not allow for the 'spirit', God, or even for Christ to be in the mind or heart.

I am always struck by the right wing 'faith'. I can't imagine that Christ would want to have his name used in connection with this
'bring em on' / 'kick butt' mentality of people.

[Name removed]

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[stopthegop]

9. two points of fact:

1)the add (as above at least) doesn't mention Arabs, Iraquis or any group

2) the purpose of the military is to "kick butt"...otherwise you could send the State Dept...it's their function to be the muscle

[Zomby Woof]

15. Arabs/Iraqis is implied

Are we killing anyone else?

Yes, I am aware the military has that function (son of a war vet here), but to sell it with a kind of infantile slogan, well, that is just stupid.

[stopthegop]

24. I disagree about the implication you see....

seems you're reading a lot into it that isn't there...and as far as being infantile...they're recruiting 18 year olds...not guys 45 or so...

[Zomby Woof]

35. shouldn't 18 year olds be men and women?

Shouldn't infantilism be left to... infants?

Maybe my analysis is bit hasty, but I think there is a lot of underlying truth that the militarism of our culture (suburbanites driving Hummers - you can't deny this) is reflected and encouraged in this ad.

The reality is, most service is not glamourous or exciting, which makes this a typical ad in many ways - a lie. War is hell, and most of a sailor or soldier's time is... boring. These young cannon fodder, I mean "kids" will be in for a rude awakening.

[stopthegop]

43. dupe..sorry

[stopthegop]

44. we could argue about the meaning of 'infantile' all day..

I just don't think the appeal in the ad is infantile..infantile would be more along the lines of 'take care of me'...as opposed to taking care of a problem as shown in the ad...


your point about Hummers may be valid, though I think for many it's more a case of conspicuous consumption that militarism...

and you're right..most military service is not as adrenalin filled as that ad portrays...

[drfemoe]

68. Yes I think

we are killing Colombians and Haitians too. I'm sure there are others.

[tom_paine]

16. Yes, but in the Days of the Old Republic we were more restrained

in saying it.

As Imperial Amerika takes on the character of it's Emperor, bullying, cowardly, cruel, stupid, weasel-betrayer, more and more this sort of crass nonsense appeals to the Imperial Subjects, the brain-dead ones, anyway.

Example:

Strategic Air Command Motto: 1947 to 1988 "Peace is our Profession"
Strategic Air Command Motto: 1989 to present "War is our Profession, Peace is a Byproduct"

Both these mottos are of the Old Republic, of a Free nation reluctant to go to war but projecting resolve to do so if it becomes necessary.

It is important to note that Imperial Amerika is techincally no longer a Free Nation. (yes our lives are still 98% free, it is a historical axiom that in Former Republics, Tyranny doesn't trickle down en masse to The People UNTIL unchecked power is fully consolidated at the top) As such, it would stand to reason that our mottos and ads and culutre would come to reemble the Bullying Braggadoccio and Consciencless Arrigance of a Bloated Imperial Totalitarian Power and Slave Nation.

Not what's said, but HOW IT IS SAID!

[Zomby Woof]

21. And that, Tom...

brings it home. :thumbsup:

[outinforce]

22. Please Note

The Strategic Air Command no longer exists.

[tom_paine]

28. Got a link to that?

[outinforce]

32. Google Is Our Friend

My home town happens to be Omaha -- where SAC, when it existed, had its HQ.

I know that SAC no longer exists.

But it took me two minutes -- using our friend Google -- to find this link --

http://www.stratcom.af.mil/

On that page, there are a number of links, including one entitled

"Command History Fact Sheet":

http://www.stratcom.af.mil/factsheetshtml/history.htm

On that page, you will find this paragraph:

"On June 1, 1992, with the Berlin Wall down, the Warsaw Pact a memory and the Soviet Union nonexistent, the Air Force stood down SAC and the JSTPS also took its place in the history books of the Cold War. That same day, President George H. Bush established a new unified command, U.S. Strategic Command. Its mission of deterrence would sound familiar, but its structure and role would reflect the changing international political landscape."

[tom_paine]

33. I guess I'm Google-illiterate

Tried the same thing and found nothing.

Nice sites.

Thanks for the education and the Googling.

I don't know why I couldn't find that (to be honest, when it didn;t become readily apparent, I gave up).

I should have known that.

[Shakespeare]

30. Oh, it exists....it merged w/US Space Command, now called STRATCOM

n/t

[nym102]

12. sexual imagery sells--that is just Old Skool marketing

Maybe they are trying to recruit women.

And whatever happened to "We Have The Technology" as a recruiting theme?

[tom_paine]

13. Just all part of the Conditioning of the Imperial Subjects of Amerika

Freedom is for pointy-headed lame-o's!

Kicking ass is where it's at!

(especially for Jews, liberals, college students, signle moms, concerned veterans, and other Enemies of the Bushevik Empire)

[Name removed]

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[outinforce]

47. I'm Curious

Just who is it, exactly, that you are accusing of being a troll out in force?

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

31. It kind of makes me think of how the vets that so many of us

have known are the opposite of what this ad portrays. Guys that don't brag and act like bullies. I always thought of the military as representing defense and have always had the image of Americans as the good guys that DO take names, sort of like how they went out of the way to record what happened during WW II and make a record for the Nuremberg trials to show an idea of justice.

This new thing is more like the action movies of the past twenty years, promoting bragging and a fake image.

[progressivebydesign]

51. My Dad served in the Korean War - Army guy.

He did his time there. He was not career military, and had no interest in going back. the interesting thing was his photos he still had from that time. He liked to take photos of the people who were living in what must have been camps, behind barbed wire. He talked of bringing food to the children, etc. Yes, going into the military VOLUNTARILY means you understand you'll have to kill people. And, if you are defending the country, that makes sense. BUT you don't have to go in there like a fucking cowboy, shooting everything that moves.. or brag about it, or swagger around like that. This macho image makes me ill.

[Capt_Nemo]

34. soldiers that think war is about "kicking butts"...

... have a high probability of getting their asses handed over to
them in a war.

[Columbia]

36. I call fake

I think it's been photo-shopped.

[Zomby Woof]

37. check the URL yourself

I got it from the Excite.com homepage.

It's real.

[DrWeird]

38. What's next? "Iraq- You Got Served?"

But really, these commercials tell alot about the target audience.

[Zomby Woof]

39. yep

Young, dumb, and full of cum, as the saying goes...

[jus_the_facts]

40. Kickin' butt seems to be the Arabs mantra as of late tho...

....just ask the Marines! :evilfrown:

[Zomby Woof]

42. Their propaganda versus ours

The American kind is insidious... appeals to the 'sports' mentality. But as Slayer said, "War is sport, the sport is war".

No doubt the propaganda for the Al Qaeda types is bloodthirsty and vile, but they also don't suffer the pretense of being above that either. We supposedly are the "civilized" culture that is bringing "freedom" to the oppressed and backwards brown people over there. For them, taking names isn't an option at all. Long memories in the middle east. I am positive we are reaping vengeance for hundreds of years now.

[jus_the_facts]

45. War without end....bring it on....death to America...holy war...jihad....

...crusade....history just continues to repeat. x(

[Desertrose]

41. Kicking butt is mandatory....

geez...:eyes:....I kinda liked GO NAVY...but then I was always kinda partial to sailors LOL

"...the more phallic the culture, the more impotent we truly are"
I think this is called *compensation*...or if you're *...just stuff a sock in your flightsuit and skip doing "time" in the armed forces.....

:hi: Zombyson :loveya:

Peace
DMom

[Zomby Woof]

46. haha!

Yeah, I had those HUGE 4x4's in mind when I fired off my pop-psychology missive... woowee! :D


:hi: :loveya:
Z-son

[JohnOneillsMemory]

48. my gawd- 'SHOOT FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER" is the sell. FUCK.

This is using the Nike sneaker simplicity 'Just Do It.'
"Accelerate your life by de-accelerating someone else's."

This is marketing unrestrained violence to children. Be a hitman for Superman Jesus Cowboy. The posse is mounting up, don't be bored at home 'cause you can play, too!

Wanna be a cowboy when you grow up? Lots of injuns out there...

Read this review of the new movie 'The Alamo' which details
White Man Movie History and the Fight FOR Slavery.

www.counterpunch.com/santina04092004.html

[Vladimir]

49. Taking names is optional

kind of reminds me of 'we don't do body counts'. Maybe I am just having a bad day.

V

[progressivebydesign]

50. No, it's not you..

That line, "taking names is optional" made my skin crawl. It bespeaks of mass graves of murdered civilians... it bespeaks unaccountability. The whole freakin' ad makes me sick, in light of what we've been seeing lately from Iraq. It's not just you...

[JohnOneillsMemory]

53. Regarding numbers. Faceless, nameless numbers...

Regarding Numbers.

Check the president's approval numbers as
Fallujah buries its dead.
What's the death count?
What the hell?
Who knows

How many bodies shattered by munitions.
Or burned away by fire.

Or buried promptly according to custom.
Where ever possible.
At home. In a stadium.
On the side of the road.

Disappearing like targets in a video arcade. 'Pop.' All gone.

"The Marines are very good at what they do," said the general.
How fortunate for the coalition of the willing.
Hired guns don't even count.
Under the table.
No accountability.

No damned numbers.

Not like Enron. We can understand loss in numbers.
But the bodies, like the books, are cooked.

No one we knew.
All gone.

[Frangible]

52. Lol, that's mild, what's the big deal?

Should go look at recruiting posters from World War 2.

"Jap, you're next" comes to mind. Oh, and "Nazis are beasts." Because of course, all people from Germany at the time were inhuman fiends, like Albert Einstein, Werner von Braun... oh wait...

[outinforce]

54. And, IIRC --

IIRC, when I saw some recruitment posters from WWII, there was a lot of symbolism that could only be described as "phallic".

Certainly, if I remember some of the WWII recruitment posters correctly, a lot more explicitly phallic than any mere slogan in the current Navy poster.

I guess we were, as a society, just a lot more corrupt and evil than we are now.

Even our attempts to be phallic are rather flaccid.

[Vladimir]

57. Good to see progress huh?

I always thought that the purpose of an army, and being a soldier in general, was to only fight if absolutely necessary. Kicking butt shouldn't be mandatory, it should be the last resort.

V

[Zomby Woof]

65. you have a good point

This is still dehumanization, but of the self, rather than the "other". Which is worse? Cuts both ways. Which is more insidious? The contemporary one. Sells war as paintball.

[Renew Deal]

55. Accelerate your life is a good slogan.

There are some great things about going to the Navy. Especially if you have never left Anytown, USA. The problem is that it's the military and there is a decent chance you will get yourself killed.

[Logansquare]

60. "Accelerate Your Death" is more like it

Why wait til 80 when you can be shipped home in a body tube at 19?

[frank frankly]

56. The Dark Knight by Frank Miller, who HATED Reagan for all the right reason

said a similar thing.

Batman is talking to Superman (who is a stooge for Reagan's jihads) and he says, refering to the regular humans something like this:

"The bigger we get, the smaller they become."

The way you see our culture is the way I see it, too. Boys listening to you MUST take hard-on pills because something is inadequate about your cock ads and you're losing your hair ads and looking at unnatural WWF muscle freaks and playing shoot-em-all games and thinking they only want to BANG some make-up drenched hottie with fake tits and a $2,000 wardrobe.

[frank frankly]

58. kick

this is important

[Redleg]

59. Yeah, how many sailors will become SEALS?

It's just like those damned Air Force ads that imply everyone in the Air Force gets to be a pilot.

[Cat Atomic]

61. That's just modern advertising.

I know a guy who went to work at a big agency that ended up doing alot of the promotionals for the Air Force. Their new campaigns are like the Army's (and this Navy ad)- very "action movie".

I'm not countering your point at all- I think you're spot-on about the state of our culture. Advertising trends offer real insights into the public mindset.

All I'm saying is that advertising has been developing on it's own track for the last few decades, and this edgy... MTV-ish approach is one of the basic tools in the advertiser's toolbox these days. It's practically a template. It's that thoughtless.

You see SUV's and sporting equipment sold exactly the same way. Get an aggressive slogan, paste some mud and rust onto it... voila.

[frank frankly]

62. kick

:kick:

[Zomby Woof]

66. yep

Advertising is the greatest con in the book. Ageless. Definitely a window on the culture. You are spot-on with your post!

[Flowerchild73]

63. "Navy recruiting pop-up reflects the New American mentality"

>>When I was a kid in the early 70's, my Dad was a Navy recruiter, and the slogan then was "Go Navy". Rather benign, eh? This was the height of Vietnam too. Now, it's "Accelerate Your Life". Sure... yeah. Kick butt. Kill Arabs<<

If you were a Navy recruiter in our times, how would you advertise to the young people?

[Zomby Woof]

64. not with that shit

And my Dad is goddamned glad to be out of the Navy. Shit like Reagan got to be too much for a thinking man like him.

[Delano]

67. Not like my experience in the Navy

The only fun part was boot camp. Once I got on the filthy, cramped ship, which was in dry dock, it was a never-ending nightmare of all-night watches and checking bilges & pumps, chipping paint until my teeth rattled, getting anything I left out stolen by the dregs that were the Navy back in the late 80's/early 90's, incredibly boring conversations & outings with fellow sailors.

Getting the hell out (just in time to avoid Gulf War I) was the best thing that ever happened to me. I would never let my sons enlist in any branch of the armed services, unless it was to thwart an invasion. They have Japanese citizenship, too, so they can blow off the draft if they choose.

The ad imagery does NOT reflect the typical Navy expewriennce, and even at 18, it wouldn't have attracted me. I wanted a good job, good pay, and money for college - NOT to be Rambo, and I don't think I was that atypical. Have today's kids changed to the point that they actually WANT to be in a firefight? Don't they know what that mean s? Havven't they at least seen Platoon or Pvt. Ryan?

Whatever. I don't buy the phallic nonsense, but the ad is crass, and it does reflect a crass culture.