Posted on 04/21/2023 3:33:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A wide-ranging advertising campaign appears to have been launched in Russia urging citizens to join the military.
It comes as the Russian armed forces have reportedly been suffering heavy losses and struggling to make progress in Ukraine more than a year after invading it.
The Defence Ministry in Moscow released a video appealing to Russians to give up their civilian jobs in favour of a contract with the military.
The video features a supermarket guard, a fitness instructor and a taxi driver - all apparently disillusioned with civilian life and finding fulfilment after joining the army.
The video promises a monthly salary of at least 204,000 roubles ($2,500; £2,000), four times Russia's average.
Ukrainian propagandists were quick to subvert the ad, producing an edited version with the wording changed. The characters in the video are now against killing children and beheadings, and "don't want to be held responsible for [President Vladimir] Putin's war crimes".
While the Russian version says "be a man", the Ukrainian video responds "be a person" - in other words, don't commit atrocities.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Uncle Vlad wants you!
Be the best cannon fodder you can be!
Funny...no pronoun, trans or hate whitey advertisements...
They need men who are willing to die for Supreme Leader Comrade President for Life Putin.
Just men? Isn’t that sexist?
America has trouble, too. Maybe the peaceniks will finally win and both sides will refuse to go to war, bringing an era of peace. Oops, forgot China, N. Korea and the Muslim terrorists.
Yesterday someone had a brief news item that almost no young American feels inclined to join the military. Lowest interest and approval of the military in decades.
From earlier Go.com
Only 9% of young people now show a propensity to serve, according to Defense Department polling data shared with ABC News. It’s the lowest number seen in 15 years. Top reasons cited for not wanting to join are the possibility of injury or death, and fear of developing PTSD or other psychological problems.
And
Even More Young Americans Are Unfit to Serve, a New ....
Military.com
Sep 28, 2022 — A new study from the Pentagon shows that 77% of young Americans would not qualify for military service without a waiver ....
“Join glorious Russian Army! We give good training, send you on great adventure, you bring glory to Mother Russsia!”
“Join today...or we hunt you down and shoot you, Comrade!”
“4x the monthly average” doesnt do much if you’re dead in a week.
Here’s the video. It’s really stupid, especially in Russian (re. the use of “muzhik”).
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1648766924027748354?s=20
I guess my family is the exception. Thirty five years ago my son wanted some gear so he could take part in his high school JROTC Ranger group. We went and bought him what he needed even though I was not too enthusiastic about the military especially watching his father struggle with his Korean War PTSD and alcohol. My own father had done what he could to avoid being drafted for WW2. My son has recently retired after 25 years in several Special Services.
This past decade, his son, my oldest grandson decided to enlist rather than go to college. He spent 11 months in Monterrey studying Arabic, among other things. He has finally decided what kind of college he wants and has the GI Bill to help pay for it. His younger brother just graduated HS and wanted to enter a service academy. After meetings at the academy of his choice he has decided to enlist in the Army to gain experience and maturity before Officer training.
My other son had no interest in the Army, but in the majority black junior high he attended, he was known as “the white kid who knows how to fight.” He was sort of a laid back hippy personality. His older son has a year or 2 of college, but is now enlisted in the Army training and service program for Medics. His mother and maternal grandmother have good medical contacts and work in their state health organizations, so he figures his training will be useful in some way, and he will also have the GI bill. His younger brother is still in high school, so no immediate future information. So 3 out of 4 grandchildren for sure. I never would have guessed this 12 years ago. I don’t know if the Ukraine/Russia situation have influenced any of these decisions. I know I fed my sons healthy foods and nursed them both so apparently they have raised healthy sons too.
I looked at the video, it looked professionally made. However my main thought was these Russians have not had much experience selling to the public. When commodities are scarce and authoritarianism is the rule, not much effort needs to be made to sell your product, especially military service, even if the wages are 4 times the Russian average and around $500 more than my Social Security.
I would like to see what the Ukranians have done with this and the Ukrainian dialogue that goes with their version.
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