COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: General
Is Military Wasting Money for Recruiting?
Lynchburg News & Advance
September 21, 2005
NASCAR race fans are a patriotic bunch. They will cheer for
almost anything, but they save their loudest cheers for the red, white
and blue American flag and the military jets that roar overhead at the
beginning of each race.
One supposes that combination of military might and patriotism is
enough to justify the military’s expense of $38 million for
advertising on cars that run in NASCAR’s two top racing circuits:
the premier Nextel Cup and the second-tier Busch Series.
The Army has spent $16 million this year as a sponsor of the Nextel Cup
car driven by Joe Nemechek. The National Guard has put out $6 million
as the primary sponsor of Greg Biffle’s car in the Nextel Cup
series. The Navy trails with expenditures of $5 million for 35 Busch
races and two Nextel Cup races, while the Coast Guard has spent $4.4
million for a Busch Series car. The Air Force and Marines have each
spent $3.3 million on racing sponsorships.
With less than two weeks remaining in the government’s fiscal
year, the Army and National Guard will fall short of their recruiting
goals for the year. The other services expect to reach theirs.
Is the expensive advertising money well-spent? Could the military
recruiting effort be advanced by putting those advertising dollars in
other, more productive venues?
The first problem, as James W. Crawley of Media General News Service
reported last Sunday, is that none of the military branches that
advertise on the race cars maintains records of how many recruits sign
up because of racing sponsorships.
Why is that?
While recruiters attend most races, signing up potential recruits for
interviews and visits is not a primary goal of the sponsorships.
“It’s an awareness tool, a branding tool,” said Tim
Talbert, deputy marketing director of the Air Force. “We
don’t measure our NASCAR effort by the (recruiting) leads it
generates. If we reach a large number of people, then we’re a
success.”
Apparently, even if none of them signs up for a tour of duty in the Air Force or another branch of service.
The primary goal of auto racing sponsorships, recruiters told Crawley,
is to heighten awareness of the military among young people and
so-called “influencers,” such as parents, teachers, friends
and others who might encourage a potential recruit to join the military.
Without a documented return on investment, some critics say the money
could produce far more effective results if spent in other venues. One
of them is Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy
Research in Nashville. “NASCAR does a great job selling cell
phones, laundry detergent, power tools, beer … and nearly every
other product under the sun, but it simply falls short at selling the
armed forces to young Americans.”
One problem is that teenagers and young adults make up only 10 percent
of racing fans. If they are not at the race, what good does the
advertising do?
So why do the drivers like the military sponsorships? Ashton Lewis Jr.,
who drives in the Busch Series for the Marine Corps, put it this way:
“It means a whole lot more to have Marines on my car than a
commercial sponsor,” he said. “You aren’t
representing a product you buy - you’re representing the men and
women who defend this country.”
And that, to be certain, is a noble sentiment. But if it is not
boosting recruiting goals for the Marines or the other branches of
service, the $38 million is going to waste. Given the federal
government’s critical needs for both money and military recruits,
it would seem they could find a more effective way to spend those tax
dollars.
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