Unwanted: Canadian Forces recruiters

Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by John Evans in Opinion

KAVEH KHAZRA

NEWS EDITOR

I’ve become increasingly aware of the army’s presence in my life. I walk by two enormous on-campus ads daily. I have laid out their full-page ads in the Et Cetera. Of the past eight issues, six of them have had full-page ads from the Canadian Forces. I am exposed to their television and radio commercials.
Between January 2009 and March 2010, the Canadian Forces have spent roughly $252,000 on advertisements in Ontario colleges and universities alone.
Let’s face it, we live in a world of branding, and when an advertiser decides to invest in a market, there is a method to their madness.
The truth is students and youth in general are prey for the army. They are popping up at our job fairs, Facebook pages, video games, movies, sporting events and iPhone apps.
A 2009 study of military branding towards youth brings up an interesting change in marketing techniques. There was a shift to a more aggressive approach as the peaceful side of military life that was previously highlighted was alienating would-be soldiers who interpreted the brand as boring.
Two years ago, the University of Victoria in British Columbia had enough and successfully pushed to ban the Forces from their job fairs. The group, Students Against War, had protested their presence, arguing the army is a tool of the exploitative capitalist and colonialist state. The forces have yet to promote on their campus.
Living in a democratic society, students must have the choice to join the forces if they want to and advertisers must have the ability to freely advertize. But to suffocate a certain demographic by marketing in most of the forums they are involved in is overwhelming and, in my opinion, can make the advertiser look desperate or greedy.
I understand that there is a need to protect our homeland, but to spend hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars to target youth is unsettling. And students at UVIC had similar feelings and did something about it. I’m not sure why so many students at that specific university protested, but I would like to see more students and youth voicing their opinions and standing up to take action for their beliefs.

Tags: Life, News, Opinion