A global force for good |
I’ve been watching all the ads for Navy and listening to our new tagline and I can’t seem to stop wondering why we feel we need to be so direct and upfront with the whole “global force for good”? If we didn’t say that we were good would people think we were a global force for something else. It is like the Navy is trying to reiterate the fact that it is doing good things. We all know that the Navy is a force for good, and it should go without saying.
I got to speak to the director of communications strategy for CHINFO and she had an interesting perspective that we need to be that direct to reach the men and women who might be prospective sailors and have no idea what the Navy does. Her comment was that some kids out there don’t realize that the Navy has more aviators than the USAF, and when asked what their first thought is about “the Navy” they sometimes comment about the clothing store…
I’m glad there are a few good men and women out there who have more of a head on their shoulders than that.
While there may be a question mark in the minds of many Americans about the broad scope of our Naval activities, I think there is no question as to whether the Navy is a force for good. What is the option to that proposition? That we are a force for bad, or in some way not good?
By wearing a badge that says “good guys” in our marketing and branding we start to sound like a propaganda machine. It feels like we are grasping at the idea of doing the right thing, but the fine men and women who serve around the world are doing the right thing every minute of ever day. We don’t need to so blatantly propagandize their sacrifices. I know we can tell the story of what we do with much more authenticity.
Sometimes “good” is taking down pirates on the high seas or killing a terrorist hundreds of miles inland with a sea-launched Tomahawk… WE know what we do matters – it’s why you’ll risk your lives flying off the pointy end of an aircraft carrier and put up with months and more of separation from loved ones. With fewer than one percent of Americans serving, the reality is it simply doesn’t go without saying. For Americans to understand what they have, we must credibly & transparently share with them what their Navy does for them… every day. We are as the SECNAV says America’s Away Team.