Marine Corps gets in on March Madness
New ads are designed to inspire, recruit young adults
With college basketball fans eagerly following March Madness, the Marine Corps is using the NCAA tournament to persuade America’s youth to forsake the comfort and safety of civilian life.
Late-season basketball is a coveted TV ad buy for the Corps, which has an unbroken two-decade record of meeting recruitment goals, even in years of combat.
The new commercials, and one that debuted during the Big 12 championship in 2012, also will run in rotation during Major League Baseball and NBA games and on MTV, Fuse and Comedy Central.
The Marines have budgeted $11.6 million for TV time and social media videos from January through June. They will gauge social media feedback to determine which of the three commercials is having greater appeal among 17-to-24-yearolds.
Unlike the Army, whose recruiting pitch promotes military service as a pathway to college or a way to learn a skill that will lead to a civilian job, the Marines use a more forceful approach.
“We don’t sell money for college and all that stuff; we talk about leadership, commitment, selfless service,” said Col. Robert Golden, chief of staff for the Marines Recruiting Command.
One new commercial, titled “Wall,” is a fictional display of combat power, with visuals that look like Iraq or Afghanistan — a mud wall, blowing sand, a burned-out vehicle. In reality, the commercial was staged at Camp Pendleton.
“We’ve seen walls before,” an unseen narrator says as a gaping hole is blasted in a wall and Marines rush through, M-16s firing. “They always fall.”
This is no subtle message: The Marines’ mission is ground combat.
The second commercial, “The Land We Love,” is more nuanced, linking military service to public service on the home front, sports, the Lincoln Memorial, voting, flag-waving and determination to rescue women and children from danger. Seventeen mini-film clips rush by, accompanied by upbeat music.
Surveys done by the Marine Corps and its longtime advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, have shown that many in the millennial generation respond more quickly to populist symbols of patriotism and public service than to raw displays of military power, and that they can assimilate messages embedded in quickly moving images backed by music.
The initial setting for “The Land We Love” is a subway car. A well-dressed man asks an unseen Marine, “So, why the Marines?” A male millennial sits nearby with his computer tablet, showing no interest.
The images fly by on the screen, then the unseen Marine answers: “Because this is the land I love, the country I’m honored to serve.” The millennial in the corner is paying attention now. So is a woman sitting next to him.
The unseen Marine is 1st Lt. Gabriel Adibe, stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
Film clips show Marines breaking down a barricaded door and rescuing terrified women and children from some unspecified threat.
“Our brand is still breaking down doors, taking down bad guys, rescuing people,” Golden said.