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NYU robots launch ad campaign for the CIA
Whoops, I mean students, not robots: New York University Professor Jacob Jacoby and his students are running an ad campaign to promote the Central Intelligence Agency as an "exceptional employer."
"It's like [working with] Campbell's Soup," says Jacoby, whose group calls itself Agent C Marketing. Naturally, the campaign has sparked protests and the junior marketers have met those protests with protests of their own. The editorial board of the student newspaper defended Agent C, acknowledging that the CIA has a "penchant for helping to install dictators and overthrow democratically elected governments," but noting that it "doesn't violate any of NYU's anti-discrimination rules in their hiring practices, unlike the Navy." Yay, go CIA! (Ironically, the Agent C campaign itself perpetuates a kind of soft homophobia, promoting the model family as one with a man, woman, children and dog as "normal.")
Fortunately, as a quick glance at Agent C's ads makes apparent, students fearing an upsurge in CIA recruitment as a result of this campaign don't have much to worry about: the campaign ads suck.The fill-in-the-blank theme, "CIA careers are more___ than you think," invites the search for adjectives more creative than THEY may think.
(Via PR Watch)
Posted by carrie on 04/06/2005 | Permalink
Comments
Why is saying the normal family is a heterosexual couple with a kid "homophobic"? If one of the definitions is "typical" or "average" (which it is), then by all means, the "normal" American family is a heterosexual couple with 2.x kids.
Don't be so PC. or are you just heterophobic?
Posted by: Greg | Apr 6, 2005 9:40:54 PM
not only that, but isn't the traditional family structure that one responsible for the lifestyle, culture, and accomplishment of our nation? this is self evident is it not? a family with a man and a woman as parents IS traditional and IS a proven archetype for a wholesome upbringing because a man IS the best candidate as a father and woman IS the best candidate as a mother. genetically, they have the most effective attributes to fill those roles.
In a society where many children are left to a broken foster system, or neglected altogether, one cannot reject the efforts of a gay couple to have a family, but don't tell me they are equal substitutes for a man and a woman. thats ridiculous.
In forming an argument to defend a potential parent, you are pushing aside the best possible scenario for a child.
Posted by: hornsofthedevil | Apr 6, 2005 9:54:17 PM
Wow, make one little comment about soft homophobs and you get comments that have little if anything to do with your post. Bummer.
I just visited Agent C's web site and I have to agree that they're ad campaign will probably fail to swell the ranks of the CIA. The fact that they seem to take themselves seriously goes a long way to explaining why the vast majority of advertising (print and otherwise) is so dissapointing.
This lends itself to my belief that just because someone is able to sell themself does not neccesarily mean they can sell your product.
To me marketing is realy quite fascinating, blending psycology, sociology, statistical analysis and the arts. I find these subjects all rather interesting but I can also see how gaining the proper contexual understanding of all of those subjects would present quite a challenge. I often wonder though, how often bad advertising campaigns are a critique of they're creators or intended audience.
Posted by: Treban | Apr 7, 2005 12:00:49 AM
having grown up in east germany to me this entire campaign is just proof that mainstream, official american culture & thinking has lost it totally by now and is becoming increasingly aligned with a status quo straight out of "1984" (and no i don't mean the apple advert ;)... in fact, many of the things which have been done secretly at GDR times are now implemented "officially" in your country, with proper laws in place, so noone can actually argue about them.
surely, there's something very eerie about advertising the secret service of *any* country as a model employer. marketing and its effects on our western culture is just another word for "newspeak" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Newspeak)
of course marketing has very fascinating subjects, as pointed out above. only you also have to remind yourself of the applications and intentions this knowledge is used for.
Posted by: toxi | Apr 8, 2005 5:35:08 AM
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=35&ItemID=7609
The big CIA recruiting event planned by students in this marketing class was cancelled due to student protest. Read the story at the link above.
Posted by: CAN-NYU | Apr 11, 2005 12:33:15 AM
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