Natalia Chi
Washington — The country’s best soldier, Sergeant. Major Michael Grinston has come to Dunbar High School in Washington, DC with a new twist on an old recruiting slogan.
With the Army falling short of its recruitment targets last year, the Pentagon is back to its familiar slogan. Efforts to recruit new employees: “Be all you can be.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, jingles were everywhere. But this is not a replay.
“We’re reinventing ‘Be All You Can Be’ for Generation Z,” Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, head of Army Enterprise Marketing, told CBS News.
Fink is the man behind the new campaign during March Madness. Actor Jonathan Majors, the star of “Creed III,” appears and portrays the history of the Army.
“We needed someone who would be popular with Gen Z,” Fink said.
Fink points out that the Army is aware of reasons why young people don’t want to join the Army, citing “risk of death and injury, fear of PTSD, and separation from family and friends.”
During recruitment, Grinston tries to refute these reasons.
“You’re actually three times more likely to die in a work-related accident than you are in the military,” Gliston told students at Dunbar High School during a presentation.
Dunbar student Antonio Graham said he would not enlist because he did not want to leave home.
“The only reason I’m not enlisting in the Army is because I don’t feel like taking up the big separation issue from my mom,” Graham told CBS News. “I really love my mom.”
But student Antilley Roberts said she liked what she heard.
“Do what you can.” I really agree with that slogan,” said Roberts.
Roberts was one of 20 recruiting leaders the Army said it had acquired during a recruiting session at Dunbar High School. According to the Army, 20 leads usually yield him two actual recruits. The Army said it needed 65,000.
