Ah, Twitter. Always woke. Always on the lookout for marketing's next big venture into "what kids these days" are into. Jonathan McIntosh (@radicalbytes) discovered this insidious (and kind of terrifying) connection between US Army recruitment and Hollywood. Because Army recruitment in schools isn't weird enough, right?! 😬
The new Independence Day movie & the US Military have started a joint advertising campaign to recruit science fiction fans into the US Army.
Two movie new trailers for Independence Day: Resurgence are actually covert advertisements of the US Army.
#IDR trailers ask fans to join the fictional “Earth Space Defense.” Clicking the video takes you to the EDS website.
This Independence Day movie site is hosted on GOARMY•COM because it's really a recruiting tool for the US Military.
For those who don’t know GOARMY•COM is the official website for US Army recruitment.
Once fans enlist in the US Army sponsored “EDS" they can do missions to unlock extra Independence Day movie content.
In order to unlock Independence Day movie extras fans must allow US Army recruiters access to their Facebook pages.
The whole "Join the Earth Space Defense” advertising campaign for Independence Day: Resurgence is designed as a US Army recruiting tool.
“It allows us to tell the Army recruitment story in a very new and very relevant way” -US Army contracted firm responsible for #IDR/Army ads
The advertising industry and US Military both understand something that many fans deny. Fiction is a very effective way to influence people.
Increasingly the US Military is turning to science fiction narrative as a recruiting tool. Fighting space aliens avoids messy moral issues.
The military likes alien invasion as a recruiting story because they can appeal to patriotism without association with US Army atrocities.
The long history of imperialism makes US Military recruitment difficult. Science fiction provides a simple good vs evil recruitment story.
The US Military collaborates with Hollywood on science fiction movies like Iron Man, Battleship & Transformers to boost their public image.
Even with the long sorted history of US Military involvement with Hollywood, this #IDR/Army recruitment collaboration is the most insidious.
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