Unbound Edition - Uncle Sam Wants YOU (Even If You’re Just a Kid)

Advertising Age reports that the U.S. Army is surfacing in underage environments. An Army Experience Center, replete with such WOW goodies as Humvee and helicopter simulators, opened August 29 in a kid-friendly area of Philadelphia’s Franklin Mills Mall. (The minimum age for playing with these super toys is only 13.) This joins the other tools in the Army marketing portfolio such as the “America’s Army” online game (9 million+ registered users), and the All American Army Brand's First Infantry Division apparel collection, which features Army-licensed insignias in sizes for boys, not just men, and is available at Sears.

ATTENTION! Don’t we as Americans try to protect children from ads for products that are inappropriate or dangerous for their ages, such as alcohol and cigarettes? Haven’t there been lawsuits against the big beer and cigarette companies about this? What right has the Army to market to our little kids? Of course the Army says it’s just testing out marketing strategies, not really recruiting.

Yes, SIR. All marketing is a test, and it’s aimed right at the targeted consumer, in this case, kids. An Army spokesman also makes clear that these marketing programs and products really don’t glamorize war because they avoid portraying violence.

Small wonder. What kid would want to think he or she could be blown to bits by a roadside bomb while playing in a Humvee?

I’m as grateful as anyone that we have a strong U.S. Army (albeit mightily strained at this time by two wars, which is why marketing to younger kids must be necessary). But if the Army insists on exposing young children to its “marketing tests” (and we let them get away with it), then it had better print great big warnings on its marketing gimmicks:

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written by Jules, September 15, 2008 02:34 PM

I was disturbed by video I saw of young boys playing on one of the simulators at the Army Experience Center. As they shot at the targets on the screen, I bet they thought of this simulator as merely a game, much like their violent video games at home. Do these kids then grow up thinking war is a game? I don't know...just seemed a little inappropriate.

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written by Mary Phelan, September 16, 2008 01:14 PM

Thanks, Jules--you make a good point. Too often young people who go off to war realize only too late that it is most certainly not a game. Simulators that make it seem like a game can only further the illusion already nurtured by violent videos.