The Marine Corps’ new television advertising campaign is trying to encourage more millennials to join up with the force by emphasizing how gender diverse it is, but some ad viewers are still furious not enough women are featured.
The new ads, part of the “Battles Won” campaign, are an attempt to illustrate how the Corps is moving away from the frame of a “Few Good Men” and instead aims at showing how Marines are model citizens and incredibly diverse, the Associated Press reports.
However, Marine Corps officials maintain that the ads aren’t geared to any particular demographic, but are more bent on appealing to anyone of eligible recruitment age.
“‘Battles Won'” is designed to drive home the message that mental, moral and emotional strength are as important as physical toughness. The campaign was created around three concepts, fighting self-doubt, fighting the nation’s battles and fighting for what’s right,” officials told the Associated Press.
Still, the ads have faced criticism
Marketing specialist Isaac Swiderski told the Associated Press that the Marine Corps failed to show women in leadership positions and placed them instead in scenes of rigorous training.
“You got to show women in better positions than in these ads,” Swiderski said.
Although the “Battles Won” campaign was produced months ago, the release date comes at a time when the Marine Corps is under major fire for not taking strong enough action against male-dominated culture and the group Marines United, which distributed nude photos of female service members.
The Marine Corps wants to add 12,000 more troops to the force and also has a goal of boosting the number of women in the ranks, but Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller recently admitted that the Marines United affair may damage female recruitment. Currently, out of the total fighting force, 8 percent is female.
Neller said he wants to boost that number up to 10 percent.
“I’ve told them that 10 percent is where we want to go and they’re working on it,” Neller said in August 2016. “Go recruit more women. Find them. They’re out there.”
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service stated Friday that the number of victims involved in the Marines United affairs has expanded to 20.
NCIS division chief Curtis Evans believe that number could still grow as the investigation unfolds.
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