The United States military is still the most-funded military on Earth, but in the 2020s, it’s in need of two things: more recruits and better PR. So, who better to help than Guy Fieri, a group of daytime TV stars, and YouTube influencers, right?
Okay, joking aside (which is pretty hard when the joke is “Guy Fieri is a psyop”), the Pentagon truly has a long history of collaborating with the entertainment industry, and according to a new report from Rolling Stone, a number of well-known faces have received support in exchange for this collaboration in recent years.
Among them are Fieri (with his Food Network show, Guy’s All-American Road Trip), as well as programs like The Kelly Clarkson Show, Downey’s Dream Cars, The Price Is Right, America’s Got Talent, and The Jennifer Hudson Show.
Though the exact details of these operations aren’t public, Rolling Stone explains that the Pentagon offers their collaborators deals called Production Assistance Agreements, or PAAs, in which they provide “military personnel, vehicles, technology, and expert advice” in exchange for the right to edit scripts, alter narratives, and otherwise shape the public’s perception of the military and military service.
This practice, of course, is nothing new — from the Office of War Information’s ties with Hollywood in World War II to the original Top Gun, the Transformers franchise, and much more, there are plenty of examples of Uncle Sam talking to us through entertainment.
What is new, however, is the methods through which the Pentagon is reaching Gen Z. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, Zoomers have experienced a 10 percent decline in military favorability over the past decade, with only 35 percent of the generation having a favorable view as of 2021. Additionally, the report states that in 2023 “several military services missed their recruiting goals by thousands.” To combat that, the Pentagon has gone online.
The same GAO report explains that each branch of the military works with “contracted advertising agencies” to develop PR strategies, and that recent years have seen them focus more and more on social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat.
Evidence of this is the Pentagon’s failed attempt to work with MrBeast, described in Rolling Stone’s article. The feds originally offered him a PAA in exchange for contributing to hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, but pulled out of the deal when the YouTube star failed to actually go to the island.
Rolling Stone suggests that the Pentagon’s failure to court MrBeast “isn’t a great sign” for their marketing prospects, and online commentators are equally unimpressed with the pull aging daytime TV stars have on Gen Z. But to those assuming the list of collaborators Rolling Stone revealed is exhaustive, just ask: what would a good psyop be without a limited hangout or two?
Okay, that’s speculation, but to that end, the GOA report confirms what might be obvious: from 2021 to 2022, Army recruitment from television campaigns saw a decline, but recruitment from social media and other nontraditional efforts saw an increase. Rolling Stone even describes tactics like Christopher Nolan-inspired recruitment ads and e-girl influencers employed by the US army psyops division.
So, in the coming years, be aware that the military might be reaching you in ways you might not be so obvious… unless they try quoting Lana Del Rey again, that is.
