Headline Roundup • May 26th, 2021
Perspectives: 'Viral' U.S. Army Ad Compared to Russian Army Ad
Summary from the AllSides News Team
A U.S. Army ad went viral last weekend after a Twitter user compared it to a Russian army ad to show a difference in the tone and messaging. The Russian ad shows traditionally masculine men undergoing military fitness training, while the American ad is a colorful cartoon telling the story of how Cpl. Emma Malonelord decided to join the military. She says she was "raised by two moms” and “marched for equality.” The video shows her at her moms’ wedding and holding signs at a rally before she states that she graduated at the top of her class and found "a way to prove my inner strength" by joining the U.S. Army.
After the tweet went viral, reactions were largely divided along the left and the right. Voices from the right pointed to the ad as a reflection of the "feminization of U.S. society," as well as a reflection of a purported shift in American ethos from "sacrificing...in the name of a higher good" to "glorifying" and "elevating" oneself. Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted, “Holy crap. Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea....” Cruz received some criticism for purportedly implying that the Russian military was better than America's. Voices from the left also criticized Cruz, saying it doesn’t matter who joins the military because in the end they will be effectively trained to serve. Some on the left also said that the U.S. ad recruits by appealing to what makes Americans consider their country worth defending, while the Russian ad does this by appealing to "angry young men looking for a violent outlet."
Featured Coverage of this Story
Townhall
Move over, CIA. The Army’s new recruitment video takes wokeness to the next level, featuring lesbian moms, a same-sex wedding, equality marches, and more.
Described by leftist outlets as a “tear-jerking queer story,” the new animated video is part of a series, “The Calling,” which showcases why five soldiers joined the Army.
One video in the campaign features corporal Emma Malonelord, who operates the Patriot missile defense system.
“It begins in California, with a little girl raised by two moms,” Malonelord says. “Although I had a fairly typical childhood, took ballet,...
AllSides
A U.S. army ad went viral last weekend after a Twitter user spliced it together with a Russian army ad to show a difference in the tone and messaging. Two AllSides writers, one from the left and one from the right, share opposing perspectives on the ad below.
The Russian ad shows physically fit men waking up at the crack of dawn, doing pushups, shooting guns and jumping out of airplanes. (We don’t speak Russian, so we’re not sure what it says.) Meanwhile, the American ad is a colorful cartoon telling the story of...
Vice
On Thursday, Republican Senator Ted Cruz learned that the American military was taking a page from the CIA's playbook and rolling out its own series of ads targeting millennials.
"Holy crap. Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea,” Cruz writes in a tweet comparing a Russian military ad to a U.S. Army recruiting ad. The Russian ad features recruits shaving their heads and suiting up for a parachute mission, interspersed with shots of a bullet being loaded into a weapon. The American ad, posted earlier this month, is a...
