Shelved Forces Ads Aimed at Aboriginals Offensive to the Point of Being Racist

[Snakedoc]

I guess I just have a hard time getting my head around the fact that we still care about race in this day and age. I don't see a need for a special commercial etc to target certain groups. People will join or not join, and be trained from there.

I think it makes sense to still 'care about race in this day and age.'  We need to recognize that we are in fact a diverse society with people coming from all sorts of backgrounds. Targeting recruiting commercials to better fit certain groups makes sense rather than just putting our heads in the sand and pretending race/ethnicity/different cultures don't exist within our Canadian fabric.  In fact, I think that's what makes us Canadian and one of the reasons why the CF strives to better reflect Canadian society.  As long as we all meet the same standard and do the same job, I don't see an issue with this.

WRT the article, agreed that it was a slow news day.  All in all, a focus group was done, the results taken into consideration, and the commercials scrapped.  Nothing was released and that is the entire point of doing focus groups in the first place, companies do market research like this all the time. 'nuff said.

 

[daftandbarmy]

It looks like we are trying to pursue a realtively sophisticated marketing strategy as it applies to recruiting for the CF. One of the target markets is obviously Aboriginals. How good have we been at doing up to this point in the history of the CF? Not very.... except for WASP white guys of course  ;D


Demographic Segmentation

Demographic segmentation consists of dividing the market into groups based on variables such as age, gender, family size, income, occupation, education, religion, race and nationality. As one might expect, demographic segmentation variables are amongst the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups. This is partly because customer wants are closely linked to variables such as income and age. Also, for practical reasons, there is often much more data available to help with the demographic segmentation process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation

 

[Greymatters]

Considering some of the issues facing native youths, a career in the military is likely a good thing and many have served with great honour in the past. In fact if i was doing this I would focus on some of the native hero's of past wars and suggest that the next generation can follow in their footsteps.

I think it would be more effective if they depicted or offered personal talks with currently serving CF members with First Nations backgrounds - this way potential recruits can learn about what it is currently like, not how it used to be like... 

 

[Jarnhamar]

How about a commercial where someone looking for work gets a challenging well paying job that provides for them and their family?

I thought I read somewhere that one of these commercials had an aboriginal building a canoe. Really?  It's 2012.

 

[Strike]

Demographic Segmentation

Demographic segmentation consists of dividing the market into groups based on variables such as age, gender, family size, income, occupation, education, religion, race and nationality. As one might expect, demographic segmentation variables are amongst the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups. This is partly because customer wants are closely linked to variables such as income and age. Also, for practical reasons, there is often much more data available to help with the demographic segmentation process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation

Good point.  We all remember the commercials from 5-8 yrs ago that were clearly aimed at the mid-20s gamers.  Don't tell me those weren't based on some sort of demographic.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Good point.  We all remember the commercials from 5-8 yrs ago that were clearly aimed at the mid-20s gamers.  Don't tell me those weren't based on some sort of demographic.

Bingo... and here's an example of what the US military is doing to attract that 'demographic':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiB3vrhPDNs&feature=related

Kind of slays our 'Fight' club, doesn't it?

 

[Greymatters]

There are still persons of First Nations background who make canoes (including other variations of maritime travel) in the old ways, but it tends to be related to professional trade, passing on tribal heritage and skills, and/or of spiritual significance.  To imply that all First Nations people go around chopping down trees and making canoes out of them is part of the stereotyping they mentioned.   

 

[The Bread Guy]

There are still persons of First Nations background who make canoes (including other variations of maritime travel) in the old ways, but it tends to be related to professional trade, passing on tribal heritage and skills, and/or of spiritual significance.  To imply that all First Nations people go around chopping down trees and making canoes out of them is part of the stereotyping they mentioned. 

Especially when you consider more Aboriginal people live off reserve than on reserve in Canada - like any heterogenous group, tough to come up with broad-brush messaging that will hit all bases.

 

[Maxadia]

I think it would be more effective if they depicted or offered personal talks with currently serving CF members with First Nations backgrounds - this way potential recruits can learn about what it is currently like, not how it used to be like...

I agree.

The first person to come to mind will be Tommy Prince - and that will bring some delusions of grandeur.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Next time the CF could probably save $53'000 if they log into army.ca and just ask "hey is this dumb?"

Just saying..

 

[Sig_Des]

Funny, when I first saw the topic I immediately thought of the scene in the old SHARP video "He can't be gay, he's an Indian!"

Personally, when targeting a specific demographic, imo instead of going with commercials, put that money into actually passing information material or actually going to places where you'll hit the demographic.

This past spring I spoke to a gr 11 class in a primarily aboriginal community. You want to hit that audience? Specific programs available, ie Bold Eagle. Talk to what the military has to offer, education and trade-wise, and draw correlations to the community values, ie Team and warrior spirit. The school staff there wanted as much information about Bold Eagle, as they loved it as a viable option to offer students.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Funny, when I first saw the topic I immediately thought of the scene in the old SHARP video "He can't be gay, he's an Indian!"

Personally, when targeting a specific demographic, imo instead of going with commercials, and put that money into actually passing information material or actually going to places where you'll hit the demographic.

This past spring I spoke to a gr 11 class in a primarily aboriginal community. You want to hit that audience? Specific programs available, ie Bold Eagle. Talk to what the military has to offer, education and trade-wise, and draw correlations to the community values, ie Team and warrior spirit. The school staff there wanted as much information about Bold Eagle, as they loved it as a viable option to offer students.

Many years decades ago we used to recruit a rather large number of aboriginals.

Individual regiments and corps were given some discretion in finding and selecting aboriginal recruits. In at least one Regiment there was an annual 'recruiting drive' in selected communities: a senior NCO and a couple of junior NCOs, good people and aboriginals themselves, went to those specific communities and visited young men (we were only recruiting men into that Regiment in those days) and their families and teachers and community leaders. It was expensive but, as far as my memory serves, we got good men and they, in disproportionate numbers, became good, solid career NCOs. (We did, by the way, in that Regiment, at at time (1960s) have at least one one aboriginal officer (one I knew personally) but he up and married an Australian girl, transferred to the Australian Army and had a good career there - retiring, as far as I know, as a LCol.)

My perception is that the aboriginal education system has failed aboriginals on reserves. Sixty plus years ago aboriginal education was below 'standard' but, since all we asked of any recruit was Grade 8, we could make do with semi-literate but 'smart' aboriginal kids. Now, when the CF needs Grade 12 we you they can no longer "make do" with a kid who has something less than a Grade 9 equivalent - and that, I am told, is about what most aboriginals manage to achieve, no matter what it might say on their diplomas. (I am "told" that by university professors who are managing remedial programmes in almost everything for kids who have high school diplomas that are meaningless.)

 

[daftandbarmy]

Funny, when I first saw the topic I immediately thought of the scene in the old SHARP video "He can't be gay, he's an Indian!"

Personally, when targeting a specific demographic, imo instead of going with commercials, and put that money into actually passing information material or actually going to places where you'll hit the demographic.

This past spring I spoke to a gr 11 class in a primarily aboriginal community. You want to hit that audience? Specific programs available, ie Bold Eagle. Talk to what the military has to offer, education and trade-wise, and draw correlations to the community values, ie Team and warrior spirit. The school staff there wanted as much information about Bold Eagle, as they loved it as a viable option to offer students.

And don't forget to mention this guy:  https://www.historica-dominion.ca/content/heritage-minutes/tommy-prince 

 

[bridges]

I guess I just have a hard time getting my head around the fact that we still care about race in this day and age. I don't see a need for a special commercial etc to target certain groups. People will join or not join, and be trained from there.

If I had to guess, I'd say that maybe there are still barriers to certain groups that we are working to remove, and maybe the representation (or not) of Canadian society in the CF is something that ultimately affects all of us in one way or another.  Maybe it makes the CF not as strong as it could be, if certain people aren't joining -?  Not sure what the rationale is, exactly, but those'd be my starting guesses.

At any rate, I recommend checking with someone of a non-majority race, before deciding that we don't need to care about race anymore. 

And for the ad designers: 

Next time the CF could probably save $53'000 if they log into army.ca and just ask "hey is this dumb?"

Just saying..

    :nod:  Unfortunately even ill-advised ideas would be seen by everyone, but apparently everyone finds out anyway...

 

[Greymatters]

My perception is that the aboriginal education system has failed aboriginals on reserves. Sixty plus years ago aboriginal education was below 'standard' but, since all we asked of any recruit was Grade 8, we could make do with semi-literate but 'smart' aboriginal kids. Now, when the CF needs Grade 12 we you they can no longer "make do" with a kid who has something less than a Grade 9 equivalent - and that, I am told, is about what most aboriginals manage to achieve, no matter what it might say on their diplomas. (I am "told" that by university professors who are managing remedial programmes in almost everything for kids who have high school diplomas that are meaningless.)

Its very dependent on the community; some have very good relations with local colleges and universities, and good dialogue with local elders,  so that even those who drop out often have the opportunity to go back and get the G12 equivalent once they realize how important it is to getting a job and making a career for themself. 

 

[The Bread Guy]

If I had to guess, I'd say that maybe there are still barriers to certain groups that we are working to remove, and maybe the representation (or not) of Canadian society in the CF is something that ultimately affects all of us in one way or another.  Maybe it makes the CF not as strong as it could be, if certain people aren't joining -?  Not sure what the rationale is, exactly, but those'd be my starting guesses.

The idea is that it's best to have a mix of Canadians in the military similar to the mix of Canadians in society so everyone can say "they're OUR Armed Forces," not "THEIR Armed Forces" - similar rationale for police forces having mixes similar to the communities they police.

At any rate, I recommend checking with someone of a non-majority race, before deciding that we don't need to care about race anymore.

That one's been debated elsewhere in the forums, and a slightly broader question than, "should we do more to recruit group x so group x can also feel the military/cops look like/are there to protect them, too?"

 

[dimsum]

The idea is that it's best to have a mix of Canadians in the military similar to the mix of Canadians in society so everyone can say "they're OUR Armed Forces," not "THEIR Armed Forces" - similar rationale for police forces having mixes similar to the communities they police.

The big difference between community policing and the CF (location-wise) is that most of our bases aren't exactly in urban centres where a lot of the "mixing" happens to be.  I've mentioned this in other threads, but it's a bit hard to convince the young person of whatever "non-traditional CF demographic" to up and move from, say, Toronto or Vancouver to Pet or Cold Lake, for instance.  The PRes seem to be doing fairly well in Toronto and Vancouver, as far as I can tell, but then again it's based on the unit's location.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I think it would be more effective if they depicted or offered personal talks with currently serving CF members with First Nations backgrounds - this way potential recruits can learn about what it is currently like, not how it used to be like...

Traditions and heritage plays a big role still in First Nations, nothing wrong in invoking that. I also like the idea of local engagement of the communities. The bands out here in BC are changing becoming more savvy, it's a good time to recruit and also to prepare the ground for future recruiting. Many of the kids in the small communites have the outdoor skills trades like Infantry wants.

 

[Jarnhamar]

The idea is that it's best to have a mix of Canadians in the military similar to the mix of Canadians in society so everyone can say "they're OUR Armed Forces," not "THEIR Armed Forces" - similar rationale for police forces having mixes similar to the communities they police.

That's the idea but in practice the minute something happens that someone doesn't agree with it's an us vs them mentality. The crowd will make it about race in about .03 seconds.

What was it someone on this forum said aboriginals got called by their own people, red apples or something?

 

[TN2IC]

Next time the CF could probably save $53'000 if they log into army.ca and just ask "hey is this dumb?"

Just saying..

That makes too much sense. But then a lot whining on here ever get heard? Me thinks not. Mil points inbound for making sense.