99.9% need not apply
The Royal Marines are running recruitment ads in cinemas and TV again, which stress how tough the course is (and it certainly is) and that "99.9% need not apply". While not bashing the Royal Marines, who make most countries special forces look like traffic wardens, it does make me wonder why air such an ad via the biggest mass media available? If you are aiming at .01% of the population but are paying for national advertising isn't that possibly the worst use of mass media?
Makes me think of a Royal Marine recruiting poster of the 1970's, that read somthing like:-
ReplyDelete"Can you land your platoon on an enemy beach while under fire?"
Invariably, would be added graffiti, reading:-
"Remember Brighton beach? Summer of '63".
Hi there
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your esteem for the Royal Marines. The numbers aren't that far out of whack when you take into account how many men don't even get passed the recruiting office, those that do then go on to the PRC course (potential recruits course) those who get passed this stage are enlisted for training, you then have blokes dropping like flies in training through lack of guts or injury. So when you look at the overall picture the numbers soon diminish to a very few indeed. The last figures I heard were for every man who walks in to a recruiting office to join the corps, only 1 in a hundred get passed all the above and earn the green beret. So .9% isn't really that far out. In my troop only 3 out of 49 pass out of training, to achive a troop of 49 in the first place, many men are turned away deemed unsuitable.
The Royal Marine Commando "adverts" are less adverts, but more propoganda, encouraging those 0.1% who can make it, yes... but much more importantly, boosting the image of the Marines, and the military as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThe government spends such money on defense, that, unless it's seen to be a good thing, the public would query its justification.
These adverts are just PR for the MOD effectively.
It is to encourage people to do better and take on the mighty challenge to "BE THE BEST" and i would say yes it is to let the tax payers know that we are the best and when it comes down to it the Army is second to none, so feel safe and watch enjoy your movie :P God Bless. Oh and Thoughts and Prayers to two of our brothers who fell in Afgan yesterday.
ReplyDelete"When he reaches the gates of Heaven,
to Saint Peter he will tell,
'One more soldier reporting, sir...
I've served my time in hell"
What does "99.9% need not apply mean" ? i need to know because its for my college homework thanks alot natasha x
ReplyDeleteNatasha, it means pretty much what it says - 99.9% of applicants simply will not be up to the incredibly high standards of the Royal Marines, they're a pretty rarified breed, only a tiny fraction of applicants will make the grade. Its why they are the best
ReplyDeleteThanks alot x
ReplyDelete