The ads portray life for British troops in Afghanistan as you would think it might be: very dangerous looking, but challenging and not without a degree of excitement as well, which is what these men train for.
Two weeks ago, British armed forces were criticised for their recruitment techniques in a report that said marketing materials glamorise warfare to children and fail to highlight the risks of military careers. Anyone who picks up a newspaper or owns a television set can not fail to miss the risks. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq has proved deadly.
The report, 'Informed Choice? Armed Forces Recruitment Practice in the United Kingdom', was billed as independent, but was written by a former Quaker who is a pacifist. Let me get this straight, pacifist says that Army glamorises war. Oh go away - that isn't independent. As one person posted on the story on Brand Republic got it right as well: "Is it being suggested that Britain is full of young people who are unaware that the British Army is currently involved in several conflicts, within which members of the Armed Forces are killed and injured on a regular basis?" The work the army does in Afghanistan (which was also well covered in ITV's eight part series 'Commando'. which followed 50 recruits undergoing months of gruelling training to become Royal Marine Commandos) is dangerous, but it is very worth doing. I think you get that from the Publicis London British Army ads as well (which I thought were very good), and from the excellent Army website (a cursory glance at which takes offers no illusions with stories of soldiers killed in action).
The army has always been dangerous, but is about more than just that. I don't think I ever acquired the idea that "warfare is portrayed as game-like and enjoyable". We have 'Call of Duty: 4' for that. Ross Kemp, love him or loathe him, has really put the time into this new series (he won a Bafta for his real-life gangs story for Sky One). He spent a year making 'Ross Kemp in Afghanistan' having first trained with the First Battalion the Royal Anglians, met soldiers and their families while still in England, and -- with Ministry of Defence approval -- was sent with them to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand province. "I knew how dangerous it was but the CO said we could film training -- and that if I was good enough, I could go out on deployment," Ross said. "And anyway, I don't think you can prepare for lying flat-faced in the field while someone tries to kill you; I don't think you can prepare for the consistent jeopardy of not knowing if the next bump is going to be your last bump." The early reviews of the series show Ross is often in very real danger, but as the Telegraph puts it "what comes through most powerfully is the resourcefulness and humanity of the soldiers who are fighting". I'm pretty sure they and everyone else has worked out that is dangerous, which is why the army largely enjoys so much support and rightly so. Oh and while we're here, on things military, there is a thoroughly worth looking at military blog written by a former special forces soldier who has been embedded for longer than any other reporter or journalist -- although he is neither. According to The New York Times, Yon has created a niche outlet that is better reported than most blogs, and more opinionated than most news reporting, with enough first-hand observation, clarity and scepticism to put many professional journalists to shame. He has also taken some brilliant pictures including this one that appeared on Time magazine's site and was later voted one of top images of the year by visitors.
"We saw the man lying face down, barefoot, in filthy, oily mud, human excrement all around him,” he wrote in 2005, describing the aftermath of a gun battle he had witnessed. "He had fallen in an open air toilet, where he lay, belly-shot. The man brought his hand to his head, and touched his forehead with his index finger, pointing right between his eyes. 'Shoot me, shoot me,' he said. 'I want to die.'"
Ross Kemp in Afghanistan starts on Sky One tonight at 9.00pm.
Gordon Macmillan
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