That Was Fast

Posted on October 10, 2006

Only five years after its launch, the Army is retiring their recruitment slogan "An Army of One".

In its battle to win the hearts and minds of recruiting-age Americans, the Army is replacing its main ad slogan – "An Army of One" – with one it hopes will pack more punch: "Army Strong."

I’m not sure about "Army Strong" but it sure beats the hell out of "An Army of One", which always seemed misguided to me. The Army as a bastion of individualism? Their whole training program is designed to get you to stop thinking like an individual and start thinking as part of a unit. I bet there wasn’t a whole lot of love for "An Army of One" at Fort Benning.

An analyst quoted in the story makes the same point, but more tartly:

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute research group, said the previous slogan seemed to promote the notion that you could join the Army and preserve your individuality.

"If you want to be an ‘Army of One’ you probably want to join the Hell’s Angels, not the U.S. Army," he said.

Gee.  Ya think? 

UPDATE (7PM): I can’t believe this didn’t occur to me until now. Does anyone else see in "Army Strong" a pretty blatant attempt to copy the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s phenomenally successful "LiveSTRONG" slogan?