How PR Ploys Fill the Pentagon's Recruiting Quotas

How PR Ploys Fill the Pentagon's Recruiting Quotas

By Diane Farsetta

Center for Media and Democracy, Posted on February 1, 2007

http://www.alternet.org/story/47451/

(23 links at the URL above)

Increasing "the ranks of our military" is "one of the first steps we can
take together" to "position America to meet every challenge that confronts
us," said President Bush in last week's State of the Union address. "
Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our
active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years."

The 92,000 figure was put forward by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who
told the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 12 that more troops
are needed to boost "combat capability" and "strengthen our military for the
long war against terrorism." The Pentagon plans to meet that goal by
re-enlisting former Marines and increasing the Army's recruitment and
retention rates.

Under the plan, the Army would only "slightly increase its recruitment
goals -by 2,000 to 3,000" a year, according to UPI. But in 2005, "the Army
failed to meet its annual recruiting goal by the widest margin in two
decades," reported the New York Times. To meet its 2006 goal, the Army
hired more recruiters, raised the maximum allowable age for recruits,
doubled the percentage of recruits who scored low on aptitude tests, issued
waivers for some recruits' prior convictions, and significantly increased
cash bonuses.

If it was that difficult for the Army to meet past recruiting goals, how
will it meet future, larger ones? Some clues are offered in the Army's
self-nomination for a prestigious public relations award.

The Army submitted its "Birth of an Army, Birth of Freedom: The U.S. Army
225th Birthday Campaign" for consideration in the Public Relations Society
of America' s 2001 annual awards. (The Army won an award, but then so did
the U.S. Northern Command in 2006, for "outstanding achievement in strategic
public relations planning and implementation in response to Hurricane
Katrina.")

The nomination documents provide a rare, detailed look at Army recruiting,
including how the largest branch of the U.S. armed forces works with public
relations firms and major media to meet recruiting goals. Moreover, they
illustrate how a small campaign, by Pentagon standards -the Army spent
$370,000 and used its "in-house marketing team" -can reach tens of millions
of people, thanks in large part to uncritical support from broadcast
outlets.

Ketchum as Catch Can

Following significant troop reductions throughout the 1990's, "the Army was
becoming disconnected from the American people," explains the awards
nomination. "Recruiting new soldiers had become increasingly more difficult,
with the Army having not met its recruiting goals" for fiscal years 1997
through 1999. The Army's public affairs staff -the government's preferred
description for its PR people -hoped that a concerted media campaign could
"assist recruiting efforts by using the Army 225th Birthday as a mechanism
for attracting potential recruits."

The Army drew on extensive research to develop the campaign, including a
survey by a major and controversial PR firm. "In conjunction with the Army's
Training With Industry program at Ketchum, an Army Public Affairs officer
worked with Ketchum's research department to conduct attitudinal research
about the Army," the awards nomination states. "The study was focused on
regions of the United States without a large military presence."

Remember Armstrong Williams, the conservative pundit outed for promoting
No Child Left Behind while secretly pocketing payments from the Bush
administration? He was a subcontractor on Ketchum's PR contract with the
U.S. Department of Education. Ketchum also produced video news releases,
or fake TV news reports, for the Education and Health and Human Services
Departments that were later found to be illegal covert propaganda. When
Ketchum won another major government contract in 2005, to promote the
Medicare drug benefit, the Washington Post felt the need to note that "the
firm promised the new ads will not cross the legal line."

For the Army, Ketchum conducted interviews with 321 people, either "parents
of school-aged children" or "students in high school or just starting
college" from across the United States, or "Pittsburgh consumers." Among the
positive findings of the firm's "Reconnecting the U.S. Army to America
Survey" was: "A majority of respondents acknowledge the Army's role in
exploring and settling the country (70%), and an equal number realize that
technology developed by the Army has beneficial civilian applications."

Among the negative survey findings was: "Army life is seen as incompatible
with today's lifestyle and is hard on families." Perhaps more worrying for
recruiters was: "Even though most respondents have had a family member in
the military (75%), less than half would encourage a young person -who is
not a family member -to join the Army (45%). And even fewer would encourage
a family member to join (38%)."

Several respondent comments listed in the Ketchum survey are from students
describing experiences with Army recruiters. "A recruiter tried to convince
my 15-year-old brother to join," said one. "This should be illegal to talk
to a 15 year old. He successfully 'snowed' my brother and his friends."
Another simply mentioned, "A recruiter for the Army took me out to eat and
gave me information." A few students credited recruiters with changing their
views of the Army: "I am a high school freshman and an Army recruiter
visited us. I have a positive opinion now because I know more and understand
what they do."

Focus Groups for the Troops

The Army's campaign theme -"Birth of an Army, Birth of Freedom" -was based
on the survey results. "An overriding consideration in this theme's
selection was a finding from the Ketchum study," explains the awards
nomination. "The study found that many Americans have no idea of the Army's
contributions to American society -especially its greatest contribution,
securing the nation's independence." The three main campaign messages, to
"be included in communication with all audiences and media," were also
developed in response to the Ketchum survey:

"Past: We have a country because we had an Army. "Present: The Army is the
doer of the nation's deeds. "Future: The Army is America's guardian of
democracy and protector of freedom."

In April 2000, the Army tested these messages, campaign graphics and other
materials on a group of Indiana University students. In addition to serving
as a focus group, the students provided useful information on their media
habits. "Television is the most important medium to college students," notes
the awards nomination, especially "on weekends" and, to reach male students,
"sports programming." The Army used other research to further refine and
target its birthday campaign. Citing a National Association of Secretaries
of State youth study, the Army noted the impact that "parents, teachers,
coaches and other influencers" have on young people's decisions, and that
"traditional appeals to civic duty do not spur youth to action." From the
Defense Department's Youth Attitude Tracking Study, the Army noted that
African-American and Hispanic youth "displayed significantly higher levels
of propensity [to enlist] than did White youth," and that the Internet is "a
viable medium for providing military information to today's youth." (The
latter was a more revelatory finding for a 1997 report than it may seem
today.)

Lastly, from the Army's own Recruiting Command State of the Youth Market
Report, Army officers crafting the birthday campaign noted that "young
people get their impressions about life in the military mainly from movies /
television, friends and family members." And while "the propensity of young
people to serve in the military is declining," the most receptive audiences
are 16-year-old white students and 17-year-old students of color, with a
"late surge" of interest among 22-year-old Hispanic and African-American
youth.

Media Gratification

Based on the media habits of its target audiences, the Army set "three
overarching guidelines" for its birthday campaign communications plan:
"Emphasize broadcast over print media"; "Incorporate sporting events into
the plan"; and "Use the Web."

The birthday campaign was particularly successful with national television
outlets, which were approached by Army public affairs officers and the New
York-based "strategic marketing public relations firm" Cohn & Wolfe. On
June 14, the Army's official birthday, the Army scored "a clean sweep of all
morning news programs," boasts the awards nomination. Ann Curry of NBC's
"Today Show" even "made a live tandem parachute jump with the Army Golden
Knights parachute team," which "received the most coverage of any single
birthday event."

Other national media hits included C-SPAN, the Washington Post, and the
"Imus in the Morning" radio show. The head of the Army's Recruiting Command
was featured in a satellite media tour -a series of sponsored and often
scripted interviews with different TV stations -that reached nearly one
million viewers in six states and Washington DC. "Birthday greetings from
such celebrities as Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Tom Brokaw and Miss America
2000" were featured on the Army's own television newscast, which airs on
domestic and international bases, as well as "85 commercial cable outlets."
Not surprisingly, the History Channel featured Army-related programming
throughout the week.

Special events garnered even more media coverage. The Army's birthday run
was featured on ABC's "Good Morning America." Yankee Stadium's "Army Day,"
complete with parachuters, recruiters and "a Humvee display," was covered by
ESPN. CNN was among the networks filming when "the secretary of the Army,
sergeant major of the Army and soldiers dressed in period uniforms rang the
opening bell" of the New York Stock Exchange. Other "local and national
recruiting events were conducted with extensive support" from Cohn & Wolfe,
according to the awards nomination.

"Print media found little interest in the Army celebrating its 225th
Birthday," but broadcast media "were extremely receptive of the Pitch Kit's
storyboards." That's not too surprising, given television's
well-documented appetite for the stunts, celebrity endorsements, fake news
and other promotional fluff that the Army was offering. Still, the
"unprecedented" media coverage reached more than 73 million people, often
directing news audiences to Army websites.

Three websites were specifically created for the Army campaign. The main
birthday website was "oriented to the general public." The "history site"
described "contributions the Army has made to our nation." Remarkably, a
list of the Army's "Top 10 Contributions to Civilization" included in the
awards nomination has as number four, "Being a model for the integration of
African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and women." Lastly, the "soldier
site," judged to be the "most compelling and successful" of the three,
included "an Army insignia game and an opportunity to register to win prizes
and gift certificates."

For the New Recruits

The June 2000 birthday campaign was "the largest and most ambitious
communications undertaking" by the Army at the time. And it did help
recruiting efforts, according to the awards nomination.

Calls to the Army's toll-free phone number "increased during the campaign
and during the week of the birthday were 70 percent more than the previous
year." More than 5,000 calls came in that week. Traffic to the Army's
recruiting website also "increased as the campaign unfolded," reaching
nearly 550 percent above the previous year's levels. On June 14, the Army's
official birthday and the peak of the campaign media coverage, website
visits were "up an incredible 964 percent." Over the birthday week, some
70,000 online "visitor sessions" were logged.

The Army credits its birthday campaign with helping it meet "recruiting
goals for the first time in three years." This boast is made in an awards
nomination, without providing the number of new recruits attributed to the
campaign. But the important question today, as the Pentagon seeks to
increase the Army's size, is how likely current recruiting efforts are to
adopt the media tactics of this pre-9/11 campaign.

The short answer: very likely, today's efforts will probably benefit from
bigger budgets and focus more on new media. After all, potential recruits'
characteristics, concerns and media habits haven't changed that much -with
the exception that cell phones, blogs and social networking sites are now in
the mix.

More than anything, the Army still needs to sway older "influencers." While
discussing the new troop increases, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel
and Readiness David Chu remarked, " Our real challenge out there isn't the
young people ... it's parents, coaches, teachers ... who, when asked by a
young person, 'Well, Dad, Mom, should I do this' -too often get a sour and
unsupportive answer." Last year, the Army explained its new slogan, "Army
strong," in part by saying it highlights "the transformative powers of the
Army" to potential recruits' family members and friends.

Of the recent Army media contracts listed in a January 2006 report,
several seek to strengthen Army public affairs training, process and
technical support. Others involve research and message development to
present "the Army's strategic perspective in the Global War on Terrorism"
and "media pitches, speakers service and bureau, and news story development
in support of the Soldiers in the Global War on Terror," as I reported
previously.

These contracts suggest a greater role for public relations in Army
recruiting efforts. But with an unpopular war in Iraq, an increasingly
unstable situation in Afghanistan, and mounting numbers of U.S. military
casualties, will media outlets be as receptive to Army pitches as they were
in 2000? Only time will tell.

Diane Farsetta is senior researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy.

Center for Media and Democracy

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Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Phone: 608-260-9713

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