CF "seducing and preying" upon Canadian Youth - News Clip

[Donut]

I didn't see the piece.  But I do recall being "seduced" and "preyed upon" by a pretty young girl.  30 years later, she's still "seducing" and "preying upon" me.  Best thing that ever happened to me.

My Cpl at 3VP UMS "Preyed upon and seduced" me, too.  It only took 11 years to get us to the padre!

On the topic at hand, hasn't this come up in the recent past?  Is this the same individual at it again, or another wing nut?  I've got CTV on in the background, and haven't seen it yet.

 

[SeaDog]

To clarify, the document they obtained stated that CF purchased a 13 week block of advertising on the net so that when people Googled for military themed video games a CF recruiting add would appear also.  The segment brought up the US Army sponsored game, and they even had the decency to include an interview with an expert warning against recruiting people who played video games as a result of their de-sensitization to violence and the possibility they may view real war as a glorified game as well.  The segment was just FULL of little nuggets to debate.  Feel free.

 

[medaid]

Actually... no... PMT YOU seduced me. Promising my glamour and a life of never ending glory. Instead... I get abused and treated like crap :'(. LOL.


Meh, honestly, I don't seduce anyone when I go out there to talk to people. I just find parents who think that way hilarious. Must be one of those 1950s black and white happy family types.

 

[SeaDog]

As for the channel, it was on the Halifax local portion of the CTV news (CTV Atlantic) and therefore may not be covered in the national CTV coverage.  Mother was local to Nova Scotia here.

 

[Jaydub]

The segment featured a mother whose son had joined the reserves and she was positive he was seduced and brainswashed by CF propoganda that glamourized war. 

Good god.  This young reservist must be mortified.

If I saw my Mother saying stuff like this on TV, it would be one less Mother's Day card I'd have to send! 

 

[Blakey]

On the topic at hand, hasn't this come up in the recent past?  Is this the same individual at it again, or another wing nut?  I've got CTV on in the background, and haven't seen it yet.

Andria Hill- Lehr?
Edit to add Link

 

[formerarmybrat23]

I don't believe this will hurt recruiting at all. Making the decison to join is up to the individual, no matter how much "preying" goes on. Also, with the length of the recruting process there is more then enough time to ponder your choice. Its easier to back out of the army then univeristy, at least we don't ask people for a deposit!  ;D

As for this mother, i wouldn't be surprised if this was the same mom from the newspaper article a few months ago.  http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/58906.0.html . She was insistant that the CF brainwashed her son. Give me a break people. It sounds as though the parents aren't satisfied with their childerns choices, and are frustrated they can no longer control them. You have to cut the cord eventually, parents need to learn to let go.

 

[Haggis]

Andria Hill- Lehr?
Edit to add Link

"Hmmmmm", says I.  Sounds familiar.
So I use Army-dot-see-eh "GoogleFu" to find http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/58906.0.html

"Swish" goes my cape, "clink" goes my spyglass and LO!  A similarity in theme and location!

WATSON!!!

 

[SeaDog]

That does indeed seem to be the same woman that started the segment (not positive as it was only a brief sound-bite from her at the beginning) on military recruitment.  That being said, I still have to shake my head over the furor caused over the "documents" outlining recruitment practices.  I still see no reason why the internet is not a viable source of recruitment for the CF.  Then again I also think the US Army video game is stroke of recruitment of genius... (Heaven forbid we recruit young, able bodied,  techno savvy youth.)  Mr. Harding's statement on politics, however, probably is the best sum up.

 

[Roy Harding]

Medtech and PMT:

Let's keep this on topic.


ARMY.CA STAFF

 

[Donut]

Ack.  Feel free to clean it up. 

 

[Haggis]

Medtech and PMT:

Let's keep this on topic.


ARMY.CA STAFF

Thank you Roy!!!  (This was getting really hard to follow.... something like channel surfing between CTV and Showcase after a night in the Mess)

 

[medaid]

Ya, my bad. Sorry Roy and PMT.


On to the topic and my personal views. It is ridiculous to believe that the military is 'seducing' the bright young minds of the Canadian public.

We are no more seducing then the LEO, the F1 drivers, the Pizza delivery company and airlines etc. Everyone is hiring these days, because of the apparent 'shortage' of workers. Just because we have not been THIS actively recruiting in the past, does not mean we don't exist (but apparently many parents think so). The lack of education and proper community outreach has caused many of these ill-advised and ill-informed and not to mention ignorant parents to exist.

The same type of people who likes fast cars, adventure and so on and so forth, are more likely to enjoy a life in the military, LEO or any other jobs which offer them that type of excitement. Just because they join the CF, does not mean that we've implanted subliminal messages into our T.V adds. Besides, I haven't seen our adds on the box for quite some time now, and honestly the past recruiting adds and even the most recent ones are TAME IMO.

I don't know. More information and education would change many people's ignorance... but not all. Seduction and preying of these young people is just another uneducated parent's concern. Which I honestly don't blame. I do however, see this as a problem, as in how do we address it and fix it? Maybe having townhall meetings with many of these concerned parents are just what's needed.

I honestly attempt to talk to everyone of my recruit's parents, if they're young. Or I try, especially when they come in for a face to face. Education my fellow soldiers... education is the key. Because god knows, the government and the public schooling system just ain't doing it for us.

 

[SeaDog]

A lot of truth to be had in your comment on education, MedTech, and it indeed starts at home.  Eventhough I had spent years in cadets and the reserves before I decided to enlist I was amazed at how little my own parents truly understood the career I was embarking upon once I had graduated university and transferred Reg Force.  8 years later I still find myself having to be patient with them as I explain things about work.  One need only imagine what runs in the minds of those parents and other members of the community who have had little or no exposure to the military.  I do, however, find the reaction of a great many people to the CF's recruiting efforts interesting.  All knowledge of the military aside, it doesn't take a Rhode's Scholar to postulate that the CF is of course going to use every medium available to recruit into our ranks.  It only makes sense to take the message to the target audience - young adults.  You find young adults today increasingly on places like the Internet.  What I have taken away from this is that the general populace (or rather the general populace as depicted by the media - infer what you will) has a problem with who are target audience is .  Ipso facto, they have a problem with what we do for a living.  If they didn't, why strive to protect "innocent" 18 year old "adolescents" from falling prey to our cunning recruitment attempts.  BTW.  Don't get me going about how much I think we shelter youth today.  (My great-uncle hit Juno just after his 16th birthday and my grandfather was working as a lumberjack by the time he was 13)...

 

[IN HOC SIGNO]

On another thread a journalism student said that they are supposed to use the acronym SIN (Significant, Interesting and New) to decide whether an item is news...I don't see how this meets any of that criteria. Maybe he forgot their other acronym AGENDA

 

[Red 6]

Just to give everyone some frame of reference about me, I served for three years as a US Army recruiter from 92-95 and spent 37 months on numbers. I never rolled a donut and made my quality mission every single month but I missed my volume mission a couple of months. Recruiters take a lot of flak and they have a tough job, some say the toughest in the Army. This is just my gut instinct, but I'll bet at least 70% of the folks I enlisted found out about the Army because we found them, not the other way around. I don't remember the exact number anymore, but I enlisted around 60-65 new Soldiers when I was a recruiter.

Finding about the Army is not an epiphany-type experience for most prospective enlistees and the mission is tied into the end-strength of the Army. Advertising is sort of like planting seeds and someday hopefully that seed Will germinate and the kid will either decide to go talk to the recruiters, or a recruiter will find the kid and the kid will already have been thinking about enlisting. In my experience, most walk-in traffic to our station was unqualified and our quality market was in the high schools and local community colleges.

Today there are so many competing messages getting sent out to young people and the armed forces are fighting for numbers with colleges, vocational schools and who knows what else. There's a lot of friction out there and the recruiting message needs to be exciting, clear and not only acceptable to the kids, but also to their parents. A couple of years ago the US Army scrapped it old "Be All You Can be" campaign and adopted the "Army of One" message for a few years. They did survey after survey and kids in the recruiting age identified with that message even though serving Soldiers hated it. Then last year the Army adopted the new "Army Strong" campaign, which is supposed to be more in line with the Army's core values and so forth.

Now someone who is anti-military might (incorrectly) say that the services prey on young guys with high speed, low drag recruiting commercials. It's the same old song and dance that some people use down here saying we unfairly target minorities and poor people in our Army recruitment, even though year after year the true numbers blow that argument out of the water. Counter-recruitment folks will always find another argument since what they have to say isn't rooted in reality, but in their own tired opinions that wore out when the draft ended in the United States. They just can't accept the fact that people can actually enlist of their own free will and that recruiters still don't hold a gun to recruits' heads to make them sign on the dotted line.

 

[1feral1]

I was recruited when the CF came to my high-school, back in Regina, and that was 1976!

Nothing wrong with that, but with a war on now, the media will play this to the end.


Wankers!


Wes

 

[Rick Ruter]

Ya, my bad. Sorry Roy and PMT.


On to the topic and my personal views. It is ridiculous to believe that the military is 'seducing' the bright young minds of the Canadian public.

We are no more seducing then the LEO, the F1 drivers, the Pizza delivery company and airlines etc. Everyone is hiring these days, because of the apparent 'shortage' of workers. Just because we have not been THIS actively recruiting in the past, does not mean we don't exist (but apparently many parents think so). The lack of education and proper community outreach has caused many of these ill-advised and ill-informed and not to mention ignorant parents to exist.

The same type of people who likes fast cars, adventure and so on and so forth, are more likely to enjoy a life in the military, LEO or any other jobs which offer them that type of excitement. Just because they join the CF, does not mean that we've implanted subliminal messages into our T.V adds. Besides, I haven't seen our adds on the box for quite some time now, and honestly the past recruiting adds and even the most recent ones are TAME IMO.

I don't know. More information and education would change many people's ignorance... but not all. Seduction and preying of these young people is just another uneducated parent's concern. Which I honestly don't blame. I do however, see this as a problem, as in how do we address it and fix it? Maybe having townhall meetings with many of these concerned parents are just what's needed.

I honestly attempt to talk to everyone of my recruit's parents, if they're young. Or I try, especially when they come in for a face to face. Education my fellow soldiers... education is the key. Because god knows, the government and the public schooling system just ain't doing it for us.

Med Tec you are right. The two TV adds were designed for the target audience (that's the 18-24) with the add that has the action in it. The second add with all the support trades (flood in MB,...) was meant for the influencers such as parents and school teachers. They are shown at different times based on who's watching when. Right now, everyone is on holidays so no point in throwing money in the wind. You'll see adds come back in the fall.

Town hall meetings are becoming more popular because of what you said. The influencers are the ones we need to convince that the CF is an employer of choice and a good life for their kids.

I remember too when I was in the militia in the 80s we used to display .50cal, FNs, SMGs and GPMGs in High Schools for recruiting. Now we have parent committees against weapons in schools so we have to find other ways of attracting.