View Full Version : Army.... Be the best advert
Matblack
20-01-2008, 17:20
Theres a 'come and be cannon fodder' ad on at the moment featuring a 'UAV' and a bunch of 16 year olds in a chalk pit probably just outside Slough.
But that aside has anyone else noticed what they appear to be controlling the UAV with?
MB
It's some kind of game controller, I noticed.
It's to show that really, it's just like playing a computer game, and you wont be hurt at all. Honest.
Is it a 360 controller? Or a PS2 controller?
Not seen the advert in a while but I know it was something I instantly recognised and thought it was incredibly inappropriate to sell a war as a video game :/
Matblack
20-01-2008, 17:46
http://www.armyjobs.mod.uk/
Go to the 3rd film strip (with the birds eye view of the desert) called "You Spot Something Unusual"
It is about 15% of the way into the film clip.
I honestly thought at that moment that it was a game ad made up to look like an Army ad, no such luck, its the British Army drafting geeks subliminally :/
MB
Matblack
20-01-2008, 17:48
I wonder if these days you need to kill 5 Iraqi soldiers to get air support?
MB
Ahh I was right. Seems so sick :(
Justsomebloke
20-01-2008, 18:14
A good angle to get kids into being shot at though a.
Come on lads try some Cs Source for real. We supply the uniforms & the guns & bullets & you just go off running about shooting Terrorists.
Looking on the other side of things, having already seen the 360 controller used with unmanned vehicles (at a show, in fact), I wouldn't rule it out as something in use (and I certainly wouldn't jump to any conclusions).
Me neither. Why not use that sort of controller? Why is it 'sick'?
Just because it happens to be used for a games console doesn't automatically say 'thou must not use this in the real world'. Why on earth would anyone get the likes of QinetiQ to design a custom-made controller for UAV systems (at multimillion cost) when a bit of software and a PS2 controller does the job just as well and is cheap to replace if it gets broken?
Justsomebloke
20-01-2008, 18:40
I think she meant it being used in an advert to pull in the kids, not that it is sick to use a 360 controller for such purposes. I may be wrong but that's how i saw it :)
I think she meant it being used in an advert to pull in the kids, not that it is sick to use a 360 controller for such purposes. I may be wrong but that's how i saw it :)
Exactly what I meant :)
I suspect 18-25 may well be the target audience for those ads anyway (if you check out some of the others you'll see more relatively young soldiers). Still don't really see the problem with that - unlike some other countries, anyone underage obviously isn't going to get in.
It just seems a bit like it's glamourising things to me is all.
It just seems a bit like it's glamourising things to me is all.
It's an advert, of course it's glamourising things. It's how they attract people, they don't show scenes of them square bashing or being beasted over the hills, instead they show the fun and more exciting parts of the job.
I don't see anything wrong with it, if this is a piece of equipment that's genuinely used then why not show it?
I just think it's a bit distasteful, that's all. Misadvertising things is all fair and well for products but not when your life's on the line.
LeperousDust
20-01-2008, 19:05
Thats what adverts do though, they make things look better than they are, if the advert says you'll die it would probably be a flop. Whether the army is a good or bad thing is another argument, but at present we have an army and it needs manning, and it needs adverts to do so...
Ok, ok I'll shut up :p
It's not distasteful or sick, it's an advert, it's allowed to do what it wants. The end.
Not wanting to beat on you even more but 'do what it wants' isn't how ads - military or otherwise - should work either. If it were genuinely promoting falsehoods or even just misrepresenting then the ASA would probably have a thing or several to say about it (and rightly so). However, I suspect the Government already have enough problems without getting beaten over the head with their own ads. :)
I was being more jokey about it than anything ;) I know adverts have numerous regulations to control what they're allowed to depict.
All I've said is I think it's distasteful to use a games controller in this way because war is in no way like a game which to me, that advert is suggesting.
It's fine for others to disagree, it just seems daft turning into a debate because all that's going to happen is some people say 'I agree' others say 'I disagree' and it inevitably either turns into an argument that can never be won because it's personal opinion, or it fizzles out and ends up with everyone agreeing to disagree.
Either way, it's fairly pointless in the long run as it achieves nothing :)
SidewinderINC
20-01-2008, 19:42
I think the way they shot the advert parts in the control area was to specifically show the fact that they were using an Xbox controller. it did stick out like a sore thumb and I think that is the distasteful part becuase they intended for it to be that way. At every possible opportunity it was "OMG LOOK XBOX CONTROLLER"
As for using the controller, it's ergonomic, very easy to use and has all the buttons in the right places. Go for it.
Matblack
20-01-2008, 20:06
Based on this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7174982.stm
I would have thought they would be a little more subtle with their imagery at the moment. There are plenty of pieces of equipment out there that they could demonstrate which don't have links to what is obviously current videogame tech and which will not strike a cord with 12-20 year olds. I don't for a moment doubt that whoever made that ad knew what they were doing.
I've interviewed three kids in in the last month who have left the army because it 'wasn't what I thought it would be' which actually meant 'they gave me a bloody beasting, which wasn't in the adverts and I wasn't told about by the recruitment officer'.
I'm not knocking our armed forces but I am not impressed by the ethics demonstrated by the Army in this.
On an aside, if you were buying in bluetooth controllers for military equipment, wouldn't you get it resprayed in black or a DPM scheme?
MB
SidewinderINC
20-01-2008, 20:57
On an aside, if you were buying in bluetooth controllers for military equipment, wouldn't you get it resprayed in black or a DPM scheme?
MB
Of course you would, which is why you can tell they've put it in the advert to draw people in.
It's an advert, of course it's glamourising things. It's how they attract people, they don't show scenes of them square bashing or being beasted over the hills, instead they show the fun and more exciting parts of the job.
I don't see anything wrong with it, if this is a piece of equipment that's genuinely used then why not show it?
Seconded.
It's an advert demonstrating the technology that the army uses. I don't think it's trying to be any more subliminal than any other advert that the Army or any other part of the government has tried. If you're not soldier calibre or material you won't make it past the training anyway, so it's daft to think that this will appeal to "geeks" who couldn't even pick up a handgun let alone a rifle :/
I can see people's point in it possibly misrepresenting the actual working ethic of being in the armed forces. However, I would like to think people who are interested in signing up, already realise that it's not all about whizzing spy planes through the air using a 360 controller.
It's no different to other things being glamorised on television in order to attract people, it's the concept of advertisement and has been around for years.
I'm going to join the Army and if I'm not flying planes with Xbox controllers, I'll be making a complaint.
killerkebab
21-01-2008, 03:04
I'd imagine an advert in which they show hours upon hours of training, random drills that get you pulled out of bed at 3AM, or an ambush on your convoy wouldn't make much of an advert.
That said, it shows another side of the army, and shows that there are dozens of jobs someone can do, even 'geeks'. What better way to show that anyone can do the job than to show a 360 controller that everyone is familiar with and that most 18-25 year olds have used at some point in their lives?
If I remember correctly, there was a set of adverts by the MoD a while back, showing a bit more truth. One involved a truck that had hit a mine, for example.
It just seems a bit like it's glamourising things to me is all.
No point spending thousands developing a dedicated controller when you can buy one off the shelf that is already tested to be reliable and indestructible. And as a bonus if it does go wrong you can walk into any shop and grab a new one. A dedicated controller might be a precious bit of kit with a 10 week lead time.
SidewinderINC
21-01-2008, 18:06
No point spending thousands developing a dedicated controller when you can buy one off the shelf that is already tested to be reliable and indestructible. And as a bonus if it does go wrong you can walk into any shop and grab a new one. A dedicated controller might be a precious bit of kit with a 10 week lead time.
Using the Xbox controller isn't the "problem" as such, more the way they're advertising it.
The advert is screaming "LOOK WE USE XBOX CONTROLLERS" by the way they've left it as stock white and had the camera pointing directly at it wherever possible and then panning away quickly.
Let's be honest. No geek would ever sign up to the army, and if they are a geek they'd know that they are just demonstrating that the army is using cutting edge technology that is operable by all levels. God I'd love to have had some geeks present during the times I've spent in military exercises and environments! :D
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