Introduction:
The United States Army launched an effective reserve recruitment campaign in1981 with the slogan Be All That You Can Be. According to an article published by The Army History Museum Advertising Age included it as No. 18 in its list of “The Top 100 Advertising Campaigns of the 20th Century.” . It was paused abruptly when America entered into war in the Mid-East in 1991, resumed after hostilities ceased and continued until it started to lose its effectiveness. It provides a perfect opportunity to examine a situation driven rhetorical argument according to the theories extant in Lloyd F. Bitzer’s essay The Rhetorical Situation.
Main Argument/Thesis:
The United States Army Reserve Advertising campaign Be All That You Can Be was driven by a peacetime situation and clearly used the theories propounded by Lloyd Bitzer in The Rhetorical Situation.
Brief Summary/Key Background Information:
Lloyd Bitzer, in The Rhetorical Situation states "Hence, to say that rhetoric is situational.” . By this statement he means that rhetorical discourse depends in the three key components:
- Exigencies
Exigencies describe the situation
- The people involved
The people involved are the speaker and the target audience
- Constraints
Constraints are the actions the speaker wants the target audience to take in response to the argument along with the motivating factors of pathos, logos and ethos.
All of these elements must be present to create the rhetorical situation. The rhetorical situation is initiated because of a situation. This makes it clear that, it is not just the situation that defines the discussion. There is also the speaker, the audience, the motive and the expected response that need to be factored into the initial situation. If any of these elements are missing there is no rhetorical situation.
These elements certainly existed when the army launched its new recruitment advertising campaign in 1981, and changed its slogan from THIS IS THE ARMY to BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE.
Campaign Background:
This campaign was launched in advertisements that first ran during the 1981 New Year’s Day College Football Bowl Games. At that time recruitment numbers and quality had fallen to unacceptable lows. The 1979 recruitment goal fell short by 16,000 and although recruiters found enough enlistees in 1980 the new soldiers did not meet the educational criteria for this year to be considered a success. In order to make it through the expected attrition, and to have soldiers capable of handling the rapidly advancing technology of the day the Army needed recruits that were High School Diploma Graduates with test scores in the upper half for their graduation level. Only 54% of the new recruits met this criteria and that posed a big problem the United States Army’s “All Volunteer” forces, and the people responsible for recruiting them. . That set the groundwork situation for discourse needed to meet Lloyd Bitzer’s rhetorical situation.
This meant a new discourse needed to be set up. One that would reach a different level of recruit. Because the Army needed people who were motivated, educated, and driven to succeed they had to find a way to appeal to them. Just showing them what the Army was about was not enough for the new generation of soldier. They had to give them a better reason to join. The G.I. Bill that allocated college funds for all enlistees expired in 1976 and was replaced by the Veterans Educational Assistance Program designed to appeal to college bound student recruits. Unfortunately the old advertising campaign did not have the correct combination of emotional, logical and ethical appeal to reach the people the recruiters needed to motivate. The simple fact that the old campaign was no longer successful is in its self prima facie evidence that this campaign was now failing, just as the long running success of Be All That You Can Be is evidence in its self that the new rhetorical argument was a success.
Supporting Evidence:
An examination of the articles written about the United States Army Reserve Recruitment program known as Be All That You Can Be along with the advertisements themselves will demonstrate the sound basis for the foregoing arguments. One of these advertisements clearly is designed to appeal first on an emotional basis. The bold heading declares that “YOU WIND UP WISHING IT WERE MORE THAN ONE WEEKEND A MONTH” . One sentence in this advertisement mentions “skill training good pay and benefits” . This is clearly designed to appeal to a select group of people on a predominately emotional basis.
That this campaign was emotionally driven on this level is evident in that it was suspended in 1991 when there was an outbreak of tensions in during the Gulf War in Kuwait. Col. John Myers, director of advertising and public affairs at the Army Recruiting Command in Ft. Sheridan was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying “I don`t know if you can characterize this as our standard procedure in time of war, We took a look at what our advertising looks like, what message it communicates, and decided our campaign may not strike the right chord.” . This is a perfect example of how the situation drives the question according to Lloyd F. Bitzer’s essay The Rhetorical Situation. His first sentence includes the phrase “That is a dangerous situation” and goes on to describe a dangerous situation as on in which “the presence of events, persons, or objects which threaten him, someone else, or something of value” . That would certainly apply to a young students who joined the Army Reserve to get an education and suddenly found themselves in the middle of a battle zone. The same article, published on January 18, 1991 also reported that the Air Force, Navy and Marines all said they did not plan to make any changes to their advertising campaigns. . This is understandable since those campaigns were based upon a different set of criteria.
The elements of benefits, pay, education and skills development in exchange for a small amount of time fulfilled the requirements to round out a rhetorical argument. These elements are all necessary for a logical argument. The motivation was not just limited to the excitement of the occupation, there was the sound benefit of receiving an education and skill training. There was also the element of serving your country that appealed to the ethical nature of these young people. The motive for the recruiters was to encourage a high level of motivated and educated recruits to join the Army Reserve Corps. The motive of the recruits was to enjoy the benefits this opportunity offered. The expected response was that these young people would join, and they did. When the situation changed in 2000 and student recruitment slowed that changed the situation and the Army began looking at other options and rhetorical arguments in the form of a new advertising campaign. .
Conclusion:
When the United States Army launched its Be All That You Can Be the nation was at peace. America’s All Volunteer Army needed a more educated level of recruit to utilize the technology of the era. This created the initial situation. The recruiters needed to reach a new target audience that established the parties to the exchange. The more educated, more motivated individuals required a way for the recruitment staff to use logic, ethics and emotion in order to convince them to sign up. This combination led to the rhetorical argument used to compel these people into a new course of action as desired by the recruiters. The campaign needed to appeal to its new target audience using logic, ethics and emotion to motivate them to change their planned course of action and act the way the recruiters wanted, that is to join the Army Reserve because it would further their educational goals, and it did. This fills all the standards needed for situational rhetoric.
Works Cited
Bitzer, Lloyd F. "The Rhetorical Situation." 1968.
Evans, Tom. "All We Could Be: How an Advertising Campaign Helped Remake the Army." 2013. Army History. 16 09 2013. <https://armyhistory.org/09/all-we-could-be-how-and-advertising-campaign-helped-remake-the-army/>.
Myers, Steven Lee. "Army, Its Recruiting Not All It Could Be, Decides to Overhaul Its Advertising." The New York Times 08 01 2000. Newspaper.
Ratcliff, Rick. "Army Quickly Suspends `Be All You Can Be` Ads." Chicago Tribune 01 18 1991.
Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal." 1729.
United States Army Reserve. "YOU WIND UP WISHING IT WERE MORE THAN ONE WEEKEND A MONTH." Various. 1990. Print Advertizement .
