A PRIZED goal of Madison Avenue is to link a brand to a desirable quality or attribute: Ford trucks with toughness, Coca-Cola with refreshment, FedEx with reliability. Now comes a major effort from one of the oldest brands of all, the Army, to lay claim to the concept of strength.
“Army strong” is the theme of a campaign that the Army plans to announce formally today. The effort, with a budget estimated at $1.35 billion in the next five years, will appear in traditional media like television as well as nontraditional outlets like blogs, social networking Web sites and chat rooms.
The campaign is being produced by nine agencies, eight of them part of the McCann Worldgroup division of the Interpublic Group of Companies.
The Army is confronting the challenge of continuing to fill its ranks with recruits amid the war in Iraq. Since the war began, the Army has had the most difficulty of any branch of the armed forces in meeting recruitment quotas. “Army strong” is intended not only to appeal to potential recruits but to encourage soldiers to re-enlist.
“It reflects what’s built into the U.S. Army soldier,” said Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp, commanding general of the Army accessions command, who oversees recruiting.
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