You’ve seen reality TV.
Now here comes reality advertising.
Starting today, the U.S. Army will present an Internet advertising campaign that follows six real-life recruits through nine weeks of basic training.
The campaign — which will be promoted by a series of cliffhanger TV commercials — could open the floodgates to a wave of “Survivor”-style pitches, according to Matthew Felling, media director at the Center for Media and Public Affairs.
“It could be the next ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.’ It could be the thing that really kind of pushes the envelope and everybody tries to rip it off,” he says.
But others doubt that the Internet ads — part of the $150 million “Army of One” campaign — mark the beginning of a trend.
“Telling the truth is going to be effective for a very small percentage of products and services,” says Michal Strahilevitz, a professor of marketing at the University of Arizona.
The creator of the Internet ads, Leo Burnett’s online subsidiary Chemistri, plays down any resemblance to TV shows such as “Survivor,” “Temptation Island” and “The Real World.”
Chemistri co-CEO Chris Miller points out that participants in some reality TV shows compete for a cash prize; others engage in “manufactured” activities such as games and meetings. The recruits, he says, will receive no money for being filmed in basic training and their appearances will be unscripted and unrehearsed.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s do something like “Survivor,”‘” he says of the ad campaign. “In fact, it was, ‘The problem with this is that people could kind of conceive of this as a reality show.’ “
Still, the parallels are striking.
“They can say that they don’t want to call it reality TV, but the idea is the same,” says Aaron Baar, a senior reporter at Adweek. The Army campaign, which Felling says is ground-breaking in its extensive use of the Internet and demands it places on the viewer, begins Friday with an introductory segment in which recruits are herded through orientation activities to cries of “Let’s go! Let’s go!” and “Let’s not take all day!”
The second Internet segment, and the first on basic training proper, begins a week from Saturday, with sit-ups, push-ups and the mechanics of military-style bed making.
The six recruits began basic training on Jan. 19 at Ft. Jackson in Columbia, S.C., Miller says.
Their story is told through 2-minute Webisodes, or Internet videos, with 4 to 6 new Webisodes added each week for 10 weeks. Visitors at Goarmy.com will be able to view old and new Webisodes and check out details such as the basic training checklist, which includes just three sets of underwear. (The rest are supplied by Uncle Sam.)
Viewers will be guided to Goarmy.com by a series of teaser TV commercials, which debuted on XFL football and are now in heavy rotation on MTV. The commercials will introduce the recruits and the challenges they face, and end with cliffhangers that can only be resolved by going to the Web site.
Among the spotlighted recruits is 19-year-old Chicagoan Richard Jones, who is quoted at Goarmy.com as saying “I grew up on the West Side of Chicago — a bad neighborhood with drug dealers and crime. This is something I want to do just to see if I can do it. See if I can make something of myself.”
The campaign was inspired by research that showed that the imposing image of basic training — reinforced by Hollywood movies with screaming drill sergeants — was a barrier to recruiting, Miller says.
The idea was to show the reality of the experience, Miller says, and to show it in a way that would appeal to skeptical 18- to 24-year-olds. Basic training “is a challenge, but it is achievable,” he says.
Indeed, one of the most surprising elements of a preview by Chemistri is that the Army sometimes looks more like gym class or summer camp than a military movie. At lights out, the drill sergeant brings to mind “The Waltons” with his fatherly, “Night, soldiers.”
“Night, drill sergeant,” the recruits call back.
This sometimes cozy depiction of military life is arguably not the case for all recruits, and some people might even claim it presents a sanitized picture. The ad team is adamant, however, in its insistence that it went to great lengths to create a realistic portrayal. Certainly, an individual recruit’s experience in basic training depends on many factors, including the kind of drill sergeant one draws.
The Army campaign has few precedents and carries some unusual risks, among them that some or all of the six recruits might fail to complete the training program.
Still, if the ads are successful, Felling says, the reality approach could have broad applications in advertising.
“I don’t know about Chips Ahoy [reality ads], but I could definitely see Tide,” Felling says: “Watch Joe get the mustard stain [out]!”
Strahilevitz disagrees, saying that the unadorned truth about a product is rarely compelling.
“If you’re going to tell the truth about Hallmark cards, what are you going to say?” she asks. “That they’re made of cardboard and ink and the envelopes are always made to fit the card?”
