Some themes – how much money you could make in the military, the educational benefits you could access, the sense of purpose the military could provide – were similar across the different magazines. In the course of looking at more than 1,500 ads published in the three magazines between 19, I discovered interesting distinctions. How were the ads in each magazine distinct? The desired reader of Cosmo – young, straight white women seeking independence – was also an ideal target of military advertisers, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s.įollowing President Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, the military sought to decrease the numbers of military women – an effort now known as the “ womanpause” – and recruiting ads published in Cosmo tapered off. Since the 1960s, Cosmopolitan has played a key role for advertisers in reaching self-sufficient working women as a consumer market.
Recruiting plans for the Marine Corps and the Navy all sought to place ads in Ebony, especially as part of efforts to recruit more Black officers. That’s largely because Ebony sought to balance content focusing on Black middle-class life with content covering the fight for racial inequality in American society. Walter Thompson and Bates Worldwide developed recruiting plans that singled out Sports Illustrated as one of the most effective publications for reaching a high concentration of potential recruits because of the magazine’s popularity with male readers.Īdvertisers contracted by the military viewed Ebony as crucial for reaching Black recruits. My own research for the book and other scholarship has found that straight white men have consistently been portrayed in recruiting ads as ideal service members.Īd agencies J. Scholars have argued that content in Sports Illustrated – known for its racy swimsuit editions – has long been designed to appeal to straight white men. I chose to look at these three magazines because they allowed me to explore ads designed to reach different groups, namely white men, Black people and women. In the following Q&A, Favara explains the rationale behind his book and discusses some of its key findings. The three magazines are Sports Illustrated, Ebony and Cosmopolitan. Military Advertising,” Jeremiah Favara, a communication scholar at Gonzaga University, examines military recruitment ads published in three commercial magazines between 1973 – when the federal government ended the military draft – and 2016.
(THE CONVERSATION) In his forthcoming book, “Tactical Inclusion: Difference and Vulnerability in U.S.
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