US Army advertising

[sexual_chocolate]

I suppose if the owners of this site have no qualms about army recruitment in general, then taking money for their advertising is no big deal, right?

 

I suppose if the owners of this site are ok with the way the armed forces are used, then advertising for the army is no big deal.

 

"get the special forces game cd FREE at goarmy.com"

 

I suppose if the owners of this site are ok with kids being targeted by army recruiters, then it's business as usual, right?

 

(At least with Joe Camel (as nefarious as it was), the victims didn't generally go out and kill others.)

 

I'm personally saddened by this website's owners' decision to accept money from the US army. I'm saddened to see advertising, manipulative advertising, anywhere, but to see it at a website devoted to the climbing culture (maybe I misunderstood this website's mission?) makes it harder to stomach.

 

 

 

 

[AlpineK]

Klick here dumbshit

 

I was hoping that you and Dave Schuldt would sign up.

[foraker]

I'm personally saddened by this website's owners' decision to accept money from the US army. I'm saddened to see advertising, manipulative advertising, anywhere, but to see it at a website devoted to the climbing culture (maybe I misunderstood this website's mission?) makes it harder to stomach.

 

climbing culture? you mean like taking risks, thinking for yourself, and being an individual? or did you mean shopping at PCC, drinking fair trade coffee, reading Mother Jones, listening to that awful Dave Matthews, and 'sticking it to The Man' like all the other so-called 'cultures' in Seattle??? Really, what is the 'climbing culture'? What about our conservative friends? Are they not part of said 'culture' or are they 'persona non-grata'?

 

As for 'manipulative advertising', i think all the adults here can make decisions for themselves without being 'protected', thanks kindly. And if I had kids, I wouldn't let them make such a profound life decision without being involved but I certainly wouldn't keep them from it if that's what they really wanted. Raise your kids to think for themselves and they won't need you looking over their shoulder all the time. If other people's kids want to join up, that's not your 'problem', and you certainly have no say in the matter.

 

While you're at it, maybe you could explain what the 'mission' of the site is? I seemed to think it was about trip reports, partner hookups, gear/technique, and a healthy bit o' spray. I didn't realize we'd become Habitat for Humanity or Greenpeace.... Did I miss the memo?

 

 

[DRep]

well said foraker.... how did our country obtain all the freedoms that we have? Did we fight for it, and didn't we use an army? Why is it a problem to have one, and why not let them advertise on CC? Lets get back to those TRs, and partner hookups! I'm Out.

[Fairweather]

I'm personally saddened by this website's owners' decision to accept money from the US army. I'm saddened to see advertising, manipulative advertising, anywhere, but to see it at a website devoted to the climbing culture (maybe I misunderstood this website's mission?) makes it harder to stomach.

 

climbing culture? you mean like taking risks, thinking for yourself, and being an individual? or did you mean shopping at PCC, drinking fair trade coffee, reading Mother Jones, listening to that awful Dave Matthews, and 'sticking it to The Man' like all the other so-called 'cultures' in Seattle??? Really, what is the 'climbing culture'? What about our conservative friends? Are they not part of said 'culture' or are they 'persona non-grata'?

 

As for 'manipulative advertising', i think all the adults here can make decisions for themselves without being 'protected', thanks kindly. And if I had kids, I wouldn't let them make such a profound life decision without being involved but I certainly wouldn't keep them from it if that's what they really wanted. Raise your kids to think for themselves and they won't need you looking over their shoulder all the time. If other people's kids want to join up, that's not your 'problem', and you certainly have no say in the matter.

 

While you're at it, maybe you could explain what the 'mission' of the site is? I seemed to think it was about trip reports, partner hookups, gear/technique, and a healthy bit o' spray. I didn't realize we'd become Habitat for Humanity or Greenpeace.... Did I miss the memo?

 

 

Shit! Damn good comments.

[AlpineK]

My dad grew up near the tail end of WW2. Back then nobody got to choose whether or not to sign up with the military. Now a days you can look at a military recruiting add and sign up or walk away. Personally I would not sign up, but that's just based on my feelings towards the current fighting the US is involved in.

[ivan]

Personally I would not sign up, but that's just based on my feelings towards the current fighting the US is involved in.

that and a large hole in your noggin, no?

 

i see no reason to worry about recruiters - we need people in the army and we provide all people enough of an eductation so that they're responsible for their own stupid mistakes - no one can join the army w/ illusions unless they're shit stupid

[joblo7]

I suppose if the owners of this site have no qualms about army recruitment in general, then taking money for their advertising is no big deal, right?

 

I suppose if the owners of this site are ok with the way the armed forces are used, then advertising for the army is no big deal.

 

"get the special forces game cd FREE at goarmy.com"

 

I suppose if the owners of this site are ok with kids being targeted by army recruiters, then it's business as usual, right?

 

(At least with Joe Camel (as nefarious as it was), the victims didn't generally go out and kill others.)

 

I'm personally saddened by this website's owners' decision to accept money from the US army. I'm saddened to see advertising, manipulative advertising, anywhere, but to see it at a website devoted to the climbing culture (maybe I misunderstood this website's mission?) makes it harder to stomach.

 

 

 

 

my exact sentiment.

we are conditioned in this country to feel that our soldiers are never wrong. our motives never devious. how could you not support that cute boy on the poster...???

we are fed this crap about freedom gained and preserved by war. honesty tells me that the freedom they are protecting is the one to make 100k a year. period.

thats what we want and we will kill for it.......

 

appalling gullibility elects mf'r like w's

it also provides trillions to a war machine.

to call the result ,freedom is grotesque.

[foraker]

I suppose if the owners of this site have no qualms about army recruitment in general, then taking money for their advertising is no big deal, right?

 

I suppose if the owners of this site are ok with the way the armed forces are used, then advertising for the army is no big deal.

 

"get the special forces game cd FREE at goarmy.com"

 

I suppose if the owners of this site are ok with kids being targeted by army recruiters, then it's business as usual, right?

 

(At least with Joe Camel (as nefarious as it was), the victims didn't generally go out and kill others.)

 

I'm personally saddened by this website's owners' decision to accept money from the US army. I'm saddened to see advertising, manipulative advertising, anywhere, but to see it at a website devoted to the climbing culture (maybe I misunderstood this website's mission?) makes it harder to stomach.

 

 

 

 

my exact sentiment.

we are conditioned in this country to feel that our soldiers are never wrong. our motives never devious. how could you not support that cute boy on the poster...???

we are fed this crap about freedom gained and preserved by war. honesty tells me that the freedom they are protecting is the one to make 100k a year. period.

thats what we want and we will kill for it.......

 

appalling gullibility elects mf'r like w's

it also provides trillions to a war machine.

to call the result ,freedom is grotesque.

 

look, I'm no fan of the Shrub (no one would ever mistake me for a Republican), but I think I'll let someone else handle this load of random drivel...

Edited September 28, 2007 by foraker

[ashw_justin]

no one can join the army w/ illusions unless they're shit stupid

Ok but how do you explain the "get the special forces game CD" angle? Are they trying to get

to join? (Does he post here?) "But there's no respawn in R.L.!"

[mattp]

Funny how our good friend Cocoa Puff posts a thoughtful essay and you rednecks run to jump on him. Mother Jones? Really. Dumbshit? C’mon.

 

I’m not sure these adds are the worst thing to hit this site since [name your train wreck] but certainly the appearance of recruiting adds is a departure from Feathered Friends and Pro Mountain Sports. THOSE were about climbing culture; no matter how you slice it I don’t think the Special Forces are.

 

Sure, we need a military to protect us. But calls to wrap ourselves in the cloak of patriotism and slap down some criticism of a war machine that causes us to invade a weak country who didn’t attack us first – with the predicted result being a disaster - and then to have the gall to say it is all about “freedom?”

 

And yes: military recruiters have been shown OVER AND OVER to be dishonest. It didn’t start just with this war, but due to certain realities (deployment is more certain than ever while post combat care for the wounded and the GI bill seem to be less secure), they are certainly more forced to manipulate the uninformed. I’ll never forget talking to a recent recruit in Darrington a month before we invaded Afghanistan, and how he told me he had just joined the Special Forces and they were going to “station” him in Afghanistan in a couple of weeks. He didn’t have a clue what they had in mind for him and nobody in the Special Forces bothered to tell him.

 

Like I said: I’m not sure these adds are the shame of the century, but they certainly indicate a different view of this site than prior adds had. What if it was adds for cars and whiskey and cigaretts? WOuld you be making the same patriotic arguments? There is room for these discussions.

 

[Macson]

Hey. I drink fair trade coffee. Shit, I think that's all you can buy in Port Townsend. Oh ya, and I'm a veteran. Maybe I'm just a little ironic.

[foraker]

I’m not sure these adds are the worst thing to hit this site since [name your train wreck] but certainly the appearance of recruiting adds is a departure from Feathered Friends and Pro Mountain Sports. THOSE were about climbing culture; no matter how you slice it I don’t think the Special Forces are.

 

Sure, we need a military to protect us. But calls to wrap ourselves in the cloak of patriotism and slap down some criticism of a war machine that causes us to invade a weak country who didn’t attack us first – with the predicted result being a disaster - and then to have the gall to say it is all about “freedom?”

 

And yes: military recruiters have been shown OVER AND OVER to be dishonest. It didn’t start just with this war, but due to certain realities (deployment is more certain than ever while post combat care for the wounded and the GI bill seem to be less secure), they are certainly more forced to manipulate the uninformed. I’ll never forget talking to a recent recruit in Darrington a month before we invaded Afghanistan, and how he told me he had just joined the Special Forces and they were going to “station” him in Afghanistan in a couple of weeks. He didn’t have a clue what they had in mind for him and nobody in the Special Forces bothered to tell him.

 

Like I said: I’m not sure these adds are the shame of the century, but they certainly indicate a different view of this site than prior adds had. What if it was adds for cars and whiskey and cigaretts? WOuld you be making the same patriotic arguments? There is room for these discussions.

 

Mattp, I'm hardly wrapping myself in the cloak of patriotism here. I'm sure if they'd put up a banner for Walmart, people would be just as torqued, even though, arguably, a lot of people here probably get crap there for climbing trips.

How many climbers have I gone out with who stop at the McD's in Leavenworth? How about banner for them? Seems that's part of 'climbing cluture'. Where do you draw that imaginary line? I suppose if the CEO of backcountry.com made some obscene salary that exacerbates the rich/poor wage gap, there'd also be objections to them having ads, even though they're serving this 'climbing culture' you keep talking about but never define. Seems to me climbers are a more diverse lot than you seem to think they are. I'm sure that if the ad had been for the Peace Corps, there'd have been no objections, right?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I’m not sure these adds are the worst thing to hit this site since [name your train wreck] but certainly the appearance of recruiting adds is a departure from Feathered Friends and Pro Mountain Sports. THOSE were about climbing culture; no matter how you slice it I don’t think the Special Forces are.

 

Sure, we need a military to protect us. But calls to wrap ourselves in the cloak of patriotism and slap down some criticism of a war machine that causes us to invade a weak country who didn’t attack us first – with the predicted result being a disaster - and then to have the gall to say it is all about “freedom?”

 

And yes: military recruiters have been shown OVER AND OVER to be dishonest. It didn’t start just with this war, but due to certain realities (deployment is more certain than ever while post combat care for the wounded and the GI bill seem to be less secure), they are certainly more forced to manipulate the uninformed. I’ll never forget talking to a recent recruit in Darrington a month before we invaded Afghanistan, and how he told me he had just joined the Special Forces and they were going to “station” him in Afghanistan in a couple of weeks. He didn’t have a clue what they had in mind for him and nobody in the Special Forces bothered to tell him.

 

Like I said: I’m not sure these adds are the shame of the century, but they certainly indicate a different view of this site than prior adds had. What if it was adds for cars and whiskey and cigaretts? WOuld you be making the same patriotic arguments? There is room for these discussions.

 

Mattp, I'm hardly wrapping myself in the cloak of patriotism here. I'm sure if they'd put up a banner for Walmart, people would be just as torqued, even though, arguably, a lot of people here probably get crap there for climbing trips.

How many climbers have I gone out with who stop at the McD's in Leavenworth? How about banner for them? Seems that's part of 'climbing cluture'. Where do you draw that imaginary line? I suppose if the CEO of backcountry.com made some obscene salary that exacerbates the rich/poor wage gap, there'd also be objections to them having ads, even though they're serving this 'climbing culture' you keep talking about but never define. Seems to me climbers are a more diverse lot than you seem to think they are. I'm sure that if the ad had been for the Peace Corps, there'd have been no objections, right?

 

I'll repeat three words mentioned above: pecunia non olet.

 

[No. 13 Baby]

Good boy, Tucker! It only took me three weeks to train you to italicize your gratuitous Latin phrases.

[David Trippett]

"if you can't make a simple choice without being influenced by advertising, you deserve what you get."

 

-Mark Twight, on criticism regarding his posing for a cigarette ad

[XXX]

but to see it at a website devoted to the climbing culture (maybe I misunderstood this website's mission?) makes it harder to stomach.

 

 

 

 

Your a cry baby! As if Climbing is the most selfless act of human purpose. What mission?

 

I suppose we should all go have a latte, climb at the uw rock, then listen to depeche mode and date some skinny crack head chick from capital hill now too.

[Dechristo]

Good boy, Tucker! It only took me three weeks to train you to italicize your gratuitous Latin phrases.

 

STFU, n00b.

 

At least try to employ some wit with your puerile pettiness.

 

Your childishness is boring and tiresome.

[sexual_chocolate]

The army spends millions on these types of advertisements for one very simple reason: they work.

 

A reason why they work so effectively is because they are given avenues of exposure by individuals who are either victims of the propaganda campaign themselves, or are doing it simply for the money. I expect that most are a combination of the two (although the owner of this website seemed to indicate he did it only out of monetary concern).

 

Another reason certainly is that the advertising itself is sophisticated at least to the degree that is needed to affect the target audience in the desired way, meaning the young; the ones most ignorant of the consequences of becoming servants to the latest ideoligical agenda being foisted on an ignorant public by whichever businessman/actor/lawyer etc. has purchased the latest pass to the white house.

 

Every one of us that supports this type of advertisement absolutely supports atrocities such as the Iraq war, for the very simple reason that without an all volunteer army, such an atrocity would be nearly impossible (can you imagine Bush selling us this war if the armed forces were comprised of drafted citizens? Young kids, your kids, your neighbor's kids, dying in a faraway desert over....over....wmd's? democracy? regional stability? which one is it, please? can someone please say oil? even greenspan does).

 

The fact is that it's this type of advertising that allows the military to function in a largely unaccountable fashion, simply because we collectively do not end up sacrificing. You know and I know that if the politicians' children were exposed to war through the draft, capricious warmongers such as Bush etal probably(?) wouldn't get such easy passes for their personal wars.

 

[Serenity]

What's funny to me is that some of the posters demonstrating virulent opposition to this advertising, represent a cross section of the population which is least affected or disenfranchised by the war.

 

Yet time and time again, you seem to be the most virulently vocal about it. Coffee house life has been good. You staying warm in that hotspot?

 

It's a good thing that there is in reality like 8 of you who have such little regard for anything other than listening to yourselves posture.

 

The nature of society has changed since the days when barbarians used to swarm over the walls, and raze cities to the ground. At that time the profession of arms was a venerated and honorable profession.

 

I also find it amusing that there seems to be a hint of isolationism in some of the posts made here. As if climbing is some kind of special secret club, that only a few can enter into.

 

The owners of the website have the right to do whatever they want to. I don't always agree with the things they do, but I've learned over time to let them do their thing. You can bitch about it all you want. If someone is inclined to join an organization like Special Forces, which incidentally is a top-notch organization filled with people you probably would have a lot in common with, then good on them. If not, then the advertising has no affect on you whatsoever. Move on, and take a look at the gear advertisers. Support them.

[rob]

Nice, in one sentence you insult "most of us" and in the next paragraph you mention there are actually less than 8.

[Serenity]

If the shoe fits then wear it.

[kevbone]

How about a big "who fucking cares"?

[ashw_justin]

I'm just doing a small part to support cc.com. Now Jon et al. have proof of the impact of advertising here, given the hundred posts in two separate threads about it in just a few days. Look at that exposure!

[joblo7]

THE POINT BUSH AND WAR MONGERS WANTED IS MADE. 'THINK WAR' NOT PEACE'