Not really the usual fare of Playpen, but through a strange Google Ad placement that I clicked on I ended up at the U.S. Airforce’s propaganda recruitment site, Do Something Amazing created by Austin agency, GSD&M;. I blog it because it is an interesting cultural phenomenon, seemingly pretty cynical and completely without irony.
The site looks like something out of Unreal Tournament or any other FPS or military videogame support website. I half expected there to be a link to download the “Iraq patch v 2.3.6 - now with State of the Union address”.
At the same time it also completely co-opts much of current web culture - you can download the clips to your iPod, PSP or as a Quicktime movie. You also get given a link to each video (for your blog of course) and the option to “Share it!” with a friend along with downloads, wallpapers, etc.
I suppose it’s only the natural way of things for the military to use the very latest marketing techniques, but somehow it just feels a bit eerie that it is so close to the marketing of the genre of entertainment that it spawned. I guess the target audience is the same too. Sigh.