Effectiveness of commercials

[Jackmoves]

No one who even remotely follow the news here in Sweden can have missed the discussions on the Armed Forces ability and difficulties in recruiting and retaining(a lot of people quit mid GMU) staff since conscription disappeared(2010). A large part of effective recruitment is to attract people to seek the basic military training, GMU, after which the recruits get the possibility to apply for a position at a unit, at which they can continue to continuously or periodically serve as soldiers or sailors or the option of the home guard(militia).

Essential to this process is how to create interest and keep in touch with the Swedish population from which recruitment is to occur. One way of doing that is through video advertising, the armed forces recently released four new commercials for television, cinema and the internet, I don't think it's possible for any Swede who are exposed to any of these forms of medias to have missed the new commercials, it's fucking everywhere, been to the cinema lately? It's there. Youtube? It's there. Spotify? It's there. The telly? It's there... I've embedded one of them below(all four are similiar).


Now what is the main task of the Armed Forces and what are they supposed to do?

§ 1 The Armed Forces will maintain and develop a military defense. The basis for this will be the ability for armed combat.

2 § Armed Forces are to defend Sweden and promote Swedish security through it's efforts nationally and internationally. The Armed Forces must be able to detect and reject violations of the Swedish territory and safeguard Sweden's sovereignty and national interests outside the Swedish territory.

The Armed Forces shall with existing capabilities and resources be able to provide support to civil operations.

The Armed Forces are to carry out tasks under the first paragraph independently, but also in collaboration with other agencies, countries and organizations.

Now to the funny part, please compare the (rather expensive) commercial with the other two at the bottom, which are recently done videos, done at home by service members with a total budget of zero SEK/£/$/€/whatever currency you fancy. What creates the most interest and best describe what you are doing in the Armed Forces?

1 of the 4 official commercials in this compaign.
Tag line:
What are you doing(Vad håller du på med?)? (Not sure what they want to imply, that people do nothing useful? ;P)

(Amateur) Recruitment video for the 311. Air Assault Squadron, part of the K3 Commandos. Shot in Afghanistan.

How is the view from your office? During training to become a fighter pilot in the Swedish Air Force this is your view, the aircraft, a SAAB 105, the tool of your training. The clip shows some of the excersises flown during the second year at the Flying Training School, the basic tactical training, abbreviated GTU. The clip is not an official Swedish Armed Forces publication, but something I made to offer a brief look at what our days are like. That, and just for the fun of it.

I'm usually a fan of our Armed Forces commercials(they are clever) but this campaign is just a big WTF and a waste of money!