On the Looking Glass' Other Side
Military marketing on the subliminal
Thirty years ago I stopped watching television altogether, so now only occasionally I “experience” television as at a bar, in a waiting room, at a laundromat, etc. For the better or worse, television is a window through which you peer into society… but also through which society peers into you.
As infrequently as I watch television, a “coincidence” leaps out. On daytime game shows, the panels of contestants frequently include uniformed members of the military. The contestant panels usually include professions like swimming pool installer, housewife, accountant – as in, rather ordinary (though no less valuable!) professions. Yet somehow, in contestants putatively sampled from the general population, members of the Armed Services – who represent scarcely 0.32% of the employed population – are featured often and prominently on daytime game shows.
Of course, it is no coincidence at all, but a tour de force in marketing by the Pentagon. Firstly, you acclimate the viewing public to the uniformed services, putting human faces on professions which exist as abstractions for the wider population. Secondly, young men (any military’s target demographic, despite whatever woke malarkey the Pentagon is now spewing) see another man in uniform and compare their reality against what they imagine his to be. When you’re bored and feel undervalued as a city parking lot attendant or suburban retail clerk, repelling out of helicopters guns a-blazing is a vision which exerts a strong allure. And of course, this very vision is also conveniently supplied by the Pentagon through the film industry, often with direct funding and screenplay oversight as detailed in David Robb’s Operation Hollywood.
By no means am I disparaging the military here per se. What is more, considering that the USA discontinued conscription only fifty years ago, it is preferable that the modern military showcase itself and try to persuade enlistment rather than coerce it by law. That said, based on the continuing Russo-Ukrainian conflict – with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggesting that American “sons and daughters” should fight Russia “when it invades the Baltic States” – Americans should be keenly aware of media (television, film, video games, etc.) influencing us towards the armed services. Especially in the internet era, the media of television may be more a window for the outside world to peer in at us rather than the other way around.
Originally posted March 3rd, 2023, on the Facebook page for Daniel Donnelly - Libertarian.
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That is a fascinating insight! I think I intuitively knew that they could only be in uniform on these shows if their superiors gave the green light. But I never consciously considered it. That’s the whole point though isn’t it? They don’t want you to consciously think about it. They want you to just have a series of unconscious positive associations with the military.
And it works! As late as my early 40s I explored the idea of enlisting in the army reserves. I had lots of conscious reasons to consider it (skill development, networking, benefits, etc) but my main feeling about it was a sense of pride and duty. Those values are fine but they have been overtly inculcated by a lifetime of movies like Top Gun and subtly inculcated by things like The Price is Right.
That’s really enlightening thank you!