A First Analysis: Scratching the Surface

 As you might have seen from the About page, the idea behind this blog is to compare the advertisements for the military services in Colombia and Germany. Following this, I want to explain why I chose these advertisements and countries. Furthermore I am already going to scratch on the surface of their cultural differences and how they are reflected in the ads.

The choice of advertisement

 I believe advertisements about military service, along with most other ads somehow affiliated with the government, tell a lot about how the country wants to be seen by their people and in the world but, most of all, tell us about the country's self-perception and the role they want to fill in global politics. This alone already justifies taking a closer look at these campaigns.

 The analysis of the advertisements however, has a certain twist to it: they have a very clear target audience in that they only address the people, more specific the youth, of their country. This means their advertisements don't have to please international audiences, leaving a lot of opportunity for cultural symbolism and contexts. Thus asking about whether the campaign is localized or globally standardized is unnecessary; the question is rather to what degree it is localized and exactly what symbols are used.

The choice of country

 In the About page of this blog I told you a little bit about myself. My family roots most definitely played a big role in the choice I made. Apart from that, I was interested in how the German military is dealing with the abolishment of compulsory military service since March, 2011. One needs very different countries if the planned comparison is supposed to bear fruit. Needless to say Colombia and Germany are very different.

via Wikimedia Commons

 Colombia has ever since been a very troubled country in terms of politics and crime. Drug trafficking and abductions reached one of their peaks in the 1970s, a time that is also reflected in one of the Colombian ads. Complying with the issues of inner securities, the military is filling the role of a helper, better trained and better equipped than their police... eh... counterparts. While the Colombian military does operate in foreign affairs, the focus of their activity lies within the countries borders, strongly influencing the image they have in Colombia. In Colombia the military is a prestigious institution, not only respected for their good deeds, but is also seen as a good employer: recreation centres called "Club Militar" offer their services to veterans and their families.

via Wikimedia Commons

 In contrast, Germany's military is suffering from a bad image among the German people. As most of their actions are in foreign countries, they are often perceived as being an imperialistic force imposing western will on suffering countries. While PR has improved the image of their foreign operations significantly, they still are an unwelcome guest in inner securities (keyword: authoritarian state) and are tainted by German history.

Taking a first look...

This first video is an advertisement that ran in Colombian television in 2010. The ad builds on history Colombians share, a history of a fight for peace and order in Colombia. We see different years being shown in the bottom right corner everytime the scenery transitions into a different "time phase". I will go through each of them shortly.

• 1810: Colombian war of independence against their Spanish colonial masters.
• 1819: Continued war of independence, the appointment of national hero Simón Bolívar to first president of Gran Colombia, a newly found, independent state (today's Venezuela, Colombia and Panama).
• 1930: Rise of the liberal party, giving voice to the underprivileged social classes, democratization, fall of the elite who lost their power with the army feeling more connected to the lower class.
• 1970s: Rise of drug cartels and paramilitary groups. The army is shown evacuating citizens from areas with guerilla activity.
• 2010: reference to today's importance.

The Colombian military is clearly associating itself with historic phases, highlighting their positive role in the events and thus, shaping Colombian history to the way it is today. It also talks about the army's future role.
The ad says: "Many things have changed. The uniforms, weapons, equipment, technology, but there is one thing that may never change: the necessity of good soldiers, dedicated to their home country, honour and loyalty. Colombian heros... do exist."

The second video I am showing you is the German advertisement for their Bundeswehr (German National Force). This too was aired on German television in 2010 in a slightly shorter version. As you will see, it uses a quite different approach and is much shorter than the Colombian ad (30 seconds as opposed to 2 minutes).

The German military has a more universal approach. Even without the voiceover, the ad would be understandable by most people, which makes it surprisingly global. They try to advertise with images of adventure, adrenaline and try to appeal to everyone's curiosity and the general lack of adventure in a modern society. Association with history would clearly be a bad idea here. Advertising with foreign operations appears to be difficult as well, as they are usually associated with absence of family and friends as well as cultural disorientation.
The ad says: "Master challenges, show teamspirit, command technology. Bundeswehr. Career with a future."

Thanks for reading through this wall of text.