SURRENDER!
Cash-strapped Army blowing up to £2 million on ditching ‘Be the Best’ slogan as politically correct top brass declare it’s elitist and puts off recruits
THE British Army is ‘wasting’ millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to scrap its famous ‘Be the Best’ motto – because top brass say it is elitist.
An official document leaked to The Mail on Sunday also shows that from January, the Army will drop its historic crest, depicting a set of crossed swords, a crown and a lion, after expensive image consultants deemed the cherished emblem ‘non-inclusive’.
Critics last night described the politically correct image overhaul as ‘futile lunacy’, and experts predicted the move would cost millions at a time when the Armed Forces are facing an unprecedented funding crisis.
The news comes as The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that nearly 200,000 personnel will not get the one per cent pay rise in April next year that they were promised in the autumn budget.
We reported how defence chiefs must save £9.8 billion to afford essential military equipment. The decision to spend huge sums on a rebranding exercise will also cause anger among hard-up junior troops who are forced to spend Christmas in damp, rat-infested military accommodation. The Ministry of Defence last night confirmed it had hired top advertising executives to reassess the Army’s public image.
According to industry experts, the year-long project, which included extensive market research, is likely to have cost about £1.5million. The iconic crossed swords crest can be seen at hundreds of British Army establishments around the world.
The cost of replacing these signs – as well as the reprinting costs for logos and letterheads – could run into millions of pounds.
The project is the brainchild of the Army’s most senior officer, General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of the General Staff. His team also wrote the document The Army Brand, which was circulated among senior officers last month. It attempts to justify the removal of the Be the Best slogan from all Army documentation and imagery, including logos, posters and signs.
It says: ‘Be the Best was a recruitment strapline from 1993 and has appeared on Army branded material ever since. But it was never a researched or defined brand.
‘Market research on May 17 found that Be the Best did not resonate with many of our key audiences and was considered dated, elitist and non-inclusive. The ECAB [Executive Committee of the Army Board] therefore agreed that its use should be phased out as soon as affordably possible. The retirement of Be the Best will commence immediately, with all planned refreshes of Be the Best branded material cancelled in favour of brand-compliant products.’
Last night, Tory MP Julian Lewis, chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, was taken aback by the withdrawal of Be the Best as the Army’s recruiting slogan. He said: ‘Being the best is nothing to be ashamed of – it is a matter for pride and a very positive message to transmit.
‘Why should we be afraid of excellence when we are constantly saying our Armed Forces are the best in the world?’
The document also claims that establishing the Army as a brand is necessary to protect its ‘institutional credibility’ and to ‘reinforce the pride and sense of belonging of soldiers and their families’.
But these claims were dismissed as absurd last night.
Colonel Richard Kemp, ex-commander of UK troops in Afghanistan, said the Army’s credibility was based on its fighting capability, not on a slogan or a logo.
He added: ‘Credibility is secured by our abilities on the battlefield, our fighting spirit and our resources. And at a time when the defence budget is being squeezed, it is lunacy to squander money on a futile branding project.
‘Be the Best is popular because it encapsulates the desire for our troops to be better than their enemies. It has never been about them looking down at anyone in society, so any suggestion it is elitist is nonsense. The Army needs to be the best and to know that it is.’
Public relations guru Mark Borkowski said military chiefs should be tackling the defence spending crisis and buying better equipment, but ‘somebody at the top of the Army has looked around them, seen a world changing faster than ever and, in a bid to grasp some sense of modernity, they’ve hired external influencers’.
The official launch of The Army Brand next month follows a 12month collaboration between Gen
‘Why should we be afraid of excellence?’ ‘Squander money on a futile branding project’
Sir Nick and advertising bosses, who formed what defence sources described last night as a ‘branding council’.
The launch will include the unveiling of the Army’s new logo: a fluttering Union Flag with ‘Army’ in bold letters underneath.
But the change of logos has caused fury inside the Army. One officer told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The Army’s own research has consistently shown support for the crossed swords over the Union Flag as the Army’s main logo.
‘Also, Be the Best was an aspiration and instilled pride. It was better than This Is Belonging – the tagline used in recent Army recruiting TV adverts. A lot of people are angry. The document used by the Army to promote the branding has also been ridiculed for its meaningless, corporate-speak language.’
An MoD spokesman said: ‘Like all organisations we adapt our brand to make sure it is up to date.
‘Be the Best has been used since 1993 and, following detailed research, we’ve decided to update our branding at a cost of £520,000.’