Let's all join the National Guard!!!

[ajaxfetish]

I mean, I know about the objectification of women, but this is perfectly natural behaviour.

Perhaps it's possible for perfectly natural behavior to be sexist?

Ajax

[The Wizard]

Oh please AP even I swell up with misplaced patriotism presented with that second vid of yours

[Husar]

Oh please AP even I swell up with misplaced patriotism presented with that second vid of yours

Perhaps because hometowns, loving parents, nice tanks, nice helicopters, flags and freedom aren't exclusively United Statesian?
At least those russian paratroopers are manly and don't go all mushy when they sing a song.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Perhaps it's possible for perfectly natural behavior to be sexist?

Of course.This is an obvious statement which feminists are fond of using but sexism differs. A commercial, an advertisement displaying common courting behaviour, flirting, is not the same as for instance, a commercial showing a woman walking by and all the men stopping and staring. The first merely depicts as common of a behaviour as it gets, a man attempting to attract a woman. The second likewise depicts a common occurrence, but the implication behind it is that women are treated, or rather, are to be treated as sexual objects, as opposed to say, exclaiming over a woman's intelligence.

One cannot avoid the first type of behaviour, as it is as essential as sexual reproduction, but the second does not necessarily have to be so. Women choose men, and men choose women, but since men are generally the ones with the more unbalanced sex drive, with the greater desire to mate, a woman chooses the man she wishes to date, and not vice versa. That is the opposite of sexist, instead, it is the empowerment of women. In accordance with this environment, males compete in modern-day mating displays.

Unless the feminists wish to regress to forced marriages and the days when women were but property, they would be wiser to keep quit for once. Unfortunately, there is no middle ground, unless you have a striking difference in the prestige of a male and female which skews the balance into the male side, enabling the male to choose as he wishes instead of vice versa. But I am sure the feminists do not wish that.

Oh please AP even I swell up with misplaced patriotism presented with that second vid of yours

When did I deny that I do not? But the picture of the American town did not seem to appeal to me much, so I was not as responsive to that video. But there are ones to which I do respond. Still, you assume many things. Your persona is different from mine. Each personality responds differently to the same stimuli, even if there are not as many so-called 'basic personalities' as most people who are fond of saying 'unique' would like. Who says I am not like HoreTore?



Hard to say now, now that I forgot how I felt during the video. But yes, I am not denying that some of the videos do appeal to me. They are superb, considering the targets of the recruiting ads, and that appeal is only partially lost to most other people.

EDIT: Ugh, I finally watched that video PI posted. Wow, I was not aware it was possible to misplace a soundtrack any more... Nice music, but this is no Peter Jackson production...

[Centurion1]

Military ads are often superbly done. im not surprised at all when i see a good military advertisement.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Military ads are often superbly done. im not surprised at all when i see a good military advertisement.

It all depends on what your interests, likes, dislikes, loyalties, etc are.

Like I said, HoreTore....

[Centurion1]

Like I said, HoreTore....

was actually in the military. yes he essentially hates it but in some ways he probably empathizes more with some of the more legitimate commercials than other people..... not that i speak for him of course.

[Aemilius Paulus]

was actually in the military.

Yah, I know, he makes a point of it very often, which distinguishes him from the rest of the stereotypical leftie-pacifist hippies...

yes he essentially hates it but in some ways he probably empathizes more with some of the more legitimate commercials than other people..... not that i speak for him of course.

The last part should be highlighted, bolded, circled, and underlined... I mean, who knows what he thinks? I would not enter such wild speculation.

[Centurion1]

which is why i backed it up with that little tidbit. plausible deniability of a sort.

[Aemilius Paulus]

which is why i backed it up with that little tidbit. plausible deniability of a sort.

We will see what HoreTore himself has to say about this. The way the thread was going, it is bound to end up in the domain of HoreTore eventually...

[bobbin]

but since men are generally the ones with the more unbalanced sex drive, with the greater desire to mate, a woman chooses the man she wishes to date, and not vice versa.

Not strictly true, women have just as much of a sex drive as your average man it's just that it isn't as socially acceptable for them express it, if a man has lots of sex it's seen as something positive, if it is a women it's a negative thing.

That is the opposite of sexist, instead, it is the empowerment of women. In accordance with this environment, males compete in modern-day mating displays.

I'm sure they would rather get equal pay and not be made to feel insecure by pratically eveything in the media.

From looking at the ads I'd say they were pretty sexist as they imply that all women care about is money and power and that it is the only way men can get them. It's all done with a sense of humour and so it's supposed to be taken very seriously but the sentiment is still there, I mean blackface was done with a sense of humour but it was still wrong.

As for good army ads this one for the royal marines does the job pretty well.

[The Wizard]

tl;dr

Too serious

[Aemilius Paulus]

Yeah, well, all my posts are tl;dr, generally speaking

My strategy is that after navigating through half an hour of text the opposing debater is too tired to counter with any sort of logical defence.

On a more serious note, most of my school and college essays are tens of pages of mind-draining archaic, legalese and overly obtuse language, kept just at the right level and tone to prevent it from being mere pretentious diction. Behind those words are solid arguments, but before one gets to that, they would need to go through the overly-longwinded essay at least 10-20 pages above the assignment. So far, this tactic works well, and I have won a few essay contests, but I feel that once I go to graduate school, such essays will be the norm

[Ironside]

Why Swedes got good rep for peacekeeping. Say what you want, but it's very honest. And very non-american.

https://www.youtube.com/swedisharmed.../2/Ql9H12cNWk4

The tv commercials are in the style of quick mental tests, more aim for brains than brawns. Not found on youtube.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well on the short list of good American ads, here's one from the Air Force;


CR

[Megas Methuselah]

This one could be worse, I guess. I noticed, however, that the most effective recruiting tools are 1st-person shooter games.

[Aemilius Paulus]

@ CR:
Lulz, marketing fail. They tried too hard to make a good ad - and the did, but that ad is well, I doubt how much it would influence most men under 25 or so - the effect would be about 'meh.'...

@ Meth:
Funny that you say so, because the US Army made free, yet for what I read, actually pretty passable FPS games for recruitment and propaganda purposes. America's Army it is called.

Official Site: http://www.americasarmy.com/
Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Army

[The Wizard]

Why Swedes got good rep for peacekeeping. Say what you want, but it's very honest. And very non-american.

https://www.youtube.com/swedisharmed.../2/Ql9H12cNWk4

The tv commercials are in the style of quick mental tests, more aim for brains than brawns. Not found on youtube.

It's still the same stuff, only done differently: we bring peace and prosperity, yay us!

Unless the two Swedish bits said something entirely different, of course...

EDIT: Dutch army commercials are a lot like the Canadian ones, with a bit of the Swedish ones mixed in. Yeah you can learn stuff for your later career, oh and we help people and build nations while we do it, come be a 21st century hero with us

[Megas Methuselah]

@ Meth:
Funny that you say so, because the US Army made free, yet for what I read, actually pretty passable FPS games for recruitment and propaganda purposes. America's Army it is called.

Official Site: http://www.americasarmy.com/
Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Army

That's some sad s-word, man.

[Aemilius Paulus]

That's some sad s-word, man.

Yeah, I'd go Digital Somalian on that one, just to spite the US Army, despite the fact it is free

Shoot, will they insta-draft me, or just sue me for a mere 1.5 million USD?

EDIT: OK, this is most unfunny. The Bay is full of America's Army. Hot darn, some people really do have a grudge...

EDIT2: I hope the use of the veiled terms for the purposes of humour is permitted, if not I will remove the references

[Yaropolk]

Yeah, but the bloke who translated it was either a lousy Ukrainian speaker or most likely, exaggerating. I speak fluent Ukrainian, and the words do not match, not at all. The meaning is rather distorted. But sheesh, that was one cheesy commercial.

I wonder how old it is - the music is early 2000s, and even then it was seen something as awkward folk rock... Then again, the commercial makes a point of military service under contract - and IIRC, Ukraine is still using the levy system of all able-bodied 18-year-old males. The general contract bill has yet to be passed into the law. So if we take the legal chronology, the commercial should not be too old.

My friend, you have to polish up on your fluent Ukrainian. The translation is spot on, they did a great job. The tune is a rap song, "Black BMW" which was released in 2005 and went multi-platinum in the former Russian states. It's about the rapper showing off his Black BMW to some girls - which is what they're mocking in this commercial. Ukraine has a 2 year conscription at age 18 where recruits go through basic and specialist training. After 2 years most recruits are discharged as sergeants, but some choose to sign a voluntary contract to stay on and make the military their career. This commercials tries to convince enlistees to do the latter.

As for the sexist comment, the standard really depends on the country. This video just reflects reality. In Ukraine there are very few opportunities, and any man with money will get a gaggle of girls around him. The last time I went to Ukraine was 6 years ago. I went to a spa, the owner advertised the services of their call girls right in the sauna - buy one get one free for the night for $20. I am sure that prices might have gone up, but the scenario is just as likely today.

[Strike For The South]

My friend, you have to polish up on your fluent Ukrainian. The translation is spot on, they did a great job. The tune is a rap song, "Black BMW" which was released in 2005 and went multi-platinum in the former Russian states. It's about the rapper showing off his Black BMW to some girls - which is what they're mocking in this commercial. Ukraine has a 2 year conscription at age 18 where recruits go through basic and specialist training. After 2 years most recruites are discharged as sergeants, but some choose to sign a voluntary contract to stay on and make the military their career. This commercials tries to convince enlistees to do the latter.

Oh snap

[Centurion1]

Ill start up the beatbox, i feel a rap off coming up in here.

[Aemilius Paulus]

My friend, you have to polish up on your fluent Ukrainian. The translation is spot on, they did a great job. The tune is a rap song, "Black BMW" which was released in 2005 and went multi-platinum in the former Russian states. It's about the rapper showing off his Black BMW to some girls - which is what they're mocking in this commercial. Ukraine has a 2 year conscription at age 18 where recruits go through basic and specialist training. After 2 years most recruits are discharged as sergeants, but some choose to sign a voluntary contract to stay on and make the military their career. This commercials tries to convince enlistees to do the latter.

O chim ti ghovorish? Ya rozmovliau po ukrainiski bez niyakih problem. Moya ghramatika mozhi bute ne zovsim doskonala, ale ya ymiu perevoditi ne girshe byd'-yakogho hohla

Shchozh, zvidki ti, ah? Ya prozhivav v Kyiv ta v Chernivtsah, v Ukraini. A ti yak?

'Ny!?!' does not qualify as 'WTF'. Not in this reality. Then, moving on, 'duzhe hochetsya vodichki napitis' is literally translated as 'I really wanna get a drink of water until I am sated', whereas the 'wouldn't mind a sip of water' is a rather liberal translation - a middle ground could have been reached. Furthermore, the slutty-looking blond with a pseudo-beret says 'Military/Army [contract], [pause] for now' and not 'Army stupid lol'. No 'asshole' in the end either, just the grandma reference as already translated. Additionally, Overlooking the 'hero's' instead of he proper plural 'heroes', 'zbroini sili' means 'armed forces', and not simply the 'Army'.

Overall, nitpicking aside, the translation was made vulgar, which the original was not. As the Israeli and Australian tourism ads showed, even certain minor oaths (more in the Aussie case) stir quite some controversy, something that is not true in the case of the Ukrainian ad.

Anyhow, personally, I like this version better.

Ukraine has a 2 year conscription at age 18 where recruits go through basic and specialist training. After 2 years most recruits are discharged as sergeants, but some choose to sign a voluntary contract to stay on and make the military their career. This commercials tries to convince enlistees to do the latter.

Ahh, I see. So they have not passed the bill yet. Too bad, Russia already did, and the same largely goes for most other CIS nations. I believe, though, the bill was promised to be implemented in 2010. But I suppose there are more important things to do. At the same time, it is likely that abandoning the mass conscription could be a budget-tightening measure.

[Yaropolk]

You're quite fluent then! But I still think they did a great job translating to make it sound like conversational english. What bill are you referring to? As far as I know none of the former CIS countries have repealed the draft.

[Husar]

Yeah, I'd go Digital Somalian on that one, just to spite the US Army, despite the fact it is free

Shoot, will they insta-draft me, or just sue me for a mere 1.5 million USD?

EDIT: OK, this is most unfunny. The Bay is full of America's Army. Hot darn, some people really do have a grudge...

EDIT2: I hope the use of the veiled terms for the purposes of humour is permitted, if not I will remove the references

Well, I played it for a loooooong time.
Since I'm a german citizen, I wasn't afraid to get drafted while playing it and it just cost them money that I played it.
Of course I've been indoctrinated so nowadays I think the US army is the greatest thing that ever happened to this planet...

[Centurion1]

no my dear boy the truth has just been revealed to you. there is a reason the USMC does not release a Marine version..... the truth would blind your sensitive european eyes.

[A Very Super Market]

I've played America's Army (From Canada. Haa) and while there isn't anything wrong with it, I fail to see how it would influence someone into joining the army.

[Husar]

no my dear boy the truth has just been revealed to you. there is a reason the USMC does not release a Marine version..... the truth would blind your sensitive european eyes.

Are you talking about those same US "marines" that Goofball(think it was him who posted that story long ago) trained with where most of them couldn't even swim?!?

[Viking]

Yah, I know, he makes a point of it very often, which distinguishes him from the rest of the stereotypical leftie-pacifist hippies...

Let's not forget that one year of army service is mandatory [for the unlucky ones] within these borders. I am actually supposed to be in the military right now, though with the standard excuse of being a student, my request for postponement got through; and I hope that I hear no more from them. No silly commercial can change this attitude.