U.S. Marine Corps Turns To MySpace

In terms of military recruitment advertising, the U.S Army, by a wide margin has the most dollars in play, most of it geared towards television advertising and event marketing. The U.S Marine Corps has a considerably smaller budget, but their latest effort is somewhat of a risk and may open the Corps up to criticism from outside watch groups. Why? Well, the Corps is turning to social networking leader MySpace to promote itself. The Marine Corps profile page on MySpace features streaming video of Marine Corps boot camp as well as the Corps in action running exercises, such as storming beaches. The Marine Corps thinking is as teens and young adults are highly technical and prone to heavy Internet usage, especially on sites like MySpace, the Internet, as an advertising and recruiting platform, presents a golden opportunity to "show its stuff." After going through the Marine Corps profile page on MySpace myself just a few minutes ago, I don't see how it will be a lightning rod for controversy from watchdog groups, since the only real call to action element is for a MySpace member to click on a button to email a recruiter if they're interested in learning more. What's the big deal in that? The Marine Corps profile page on MySpace has about 12,000 members and so far, about 430 of them have gone ahead and contacted the Corps through MySpace. The first objection comes from a watchdog outfit called the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (that's a mouthful), saying the profile page is "obnoxious and is an attempt to sucker youth into something they're not really explaining." I wonder if the group actually clicked on all of the links within the profile page, because after doing so, you sorta get what the Corps is all about, rather quickly. I have to respectfully disagree with the watchdog group, the overwhelming majority of teens and young adults are fully aware of what the military and military services are all about, they see the headlines everyday, and I don't believe they are as naive or gullible as the watchdog group thinks they are. Sorry, I have to say, great job USMC, way to leverage the platform.