How To Woo a Warrior

...This follows the military’s current guidelines, which recommend that when dealing with civilians, soldiers remove their dark eyewear so as to appear less threatening...

...Its footage includes locust-like helicopters swarming in from above, heavily armed vehicles barreling through a village, and even a battlefield explosion...

...By contrast, a recent “Army Strong” commercial actually shows a female soldier being pulled over an obstacle wall by other soldiers— a depiction of the very feminization of the military bemoaned by Stephanie Gutmann’s The Kinder, Gentler Military, which reported that, after too many women failed to climb the obstacle wall unassisted, the Army eliminated that training requirement...

...Unlike all of these, “American Warrior” hits its marks with the precision and power of a laser-guided bomb...

...The muscular opening lyric alludes to and brushes aside any doubts about the war in Iraq: So don’t tell me who’s wrong and right / when liberty starts slippin’ away / And if you ain’t gonna fi ght / get out of the way...

...Not only does a soldier kick a soccer ball to the frightened boy, but the American takes off his sunglasses before doing so...

...As for aiding in retention and morale, the lyrical and musical ferocity of “American Warrior,” together with its emphasis on loyalty (soldiers are shown rescuing their buddy, whom they would “never leave . . . behind”), ought to shore up the self-image of troops currently serving in the combat arena...

...Even more boldly, the video does not shrink from the fact that a guardsman might be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan...

...Earnhardt is a hero to NASCAR fans, while Kid Rock, who hails from smalltown Michigan, is famous for his impudent white-trash persona...

...American Warrior” perhaps takes its forthrightness to an extreme when Kid Rock solemnly sings, “I’m giving all myself,” which could easily refer to sacrifi cing one’s life...

...This is a marked improvement over “Citizen/Soldier,” a cinematic National Guard ad from 2007 that portrayed combat soldiers primarily in the Revolutionary War and World War II...

...Directed by Academy Award-winner James Mangold, the two-minuteand-35-second music video combines a kick-ass song by Kid Rock with visuals that cut between the rock star in concert, Dale Earnhardt Jr...

...braving danger in a stockcar race, and guardsmen deployed at home and abroad...

...Another noteworthy feature of “American Warrior” is the way it savvily targets red staters...

...And the second verse boasts of being “ready to deploy, engage, and destroy,” the syllables of which are syncopated for maximum force...

...The song itself was created by adding all new lyrics to the grinding southern riffs of Kid Rock’s “Jackson, Mississippi,” the opening line of which is sung in country-style harmony...

...That the ad is oriented toward the heartland refl ects the fact that the military has for quite some time been disproportionately southern in its makeup—a phenomenon that can be attributed in large part to the longstanding importance of honor in the region, a value that blue staters often fail to comprehend...

...The “American Warrior” ad, by contrast, is aimed solely at young men, the sort who might be open to the idea that war is the proving ground for manliness...

...And, needless to say, guardsmen on patrol in Falluja do not picture themselves primarily as irenic do-gooders...

...Also, given that U.S...

...BY JUSTIN SHUBOW Now airing in theaters before the coming attractions, “American Warrior” is a stunningly unorthodox commercial for the U.S...

...Psychological studies from World War II onward have shown that soldiers fi ght less for a cause than for their brothers in arms...

...By offering red-blooded males a blunt message of certitude with attitude, one that combines idealism with realism, the video’s creators have produced a spot that shines by comparison with the Army’s numerous marketing missteps—from the self-help “Be All That You Can Be” to the hyper-individualistic “Army of One” to the caveman-like solecism “Army Strong...

...But the ad’s most astonishing moment occurs when an American Humvee accidentally nearly kills a young Muslim boy who has run into the street...

...it shows soldiers in what is clearly a Middle Eastern country...

...soldiers routinely fi re themselves up before dangerous missions by listening to aggressive music, it is almost a sure thing that “American Warrior” will be used for this very purpose in Iraq and Afghanistan...

...Despite these touches, the ad is anything but a “We Are the World” paean to peacekeepers...

...Indeed, only one woman soldier appears in the video—and she is barely recognizable as female...

...If comments on blog posts are a good indication, troops are overwhelmingly gung-ho about the song...

...Justin Shubow is assistant editor at Commentary...

...Thanks to such assaultive sounds and imagery, the video almost seems more fi tting for the Marines than the National Guard, whose ads have traditionally played up the softer side of the service, such as helping one’s neighbors and building character...

...The surprising realism is enhanced by a reference to the military’s newfound attention to cultural sensitivity...

...Still fiercer are the vocals, with Kid Rock repeatedly screaming the word “warrior...

...Could this be the fi rst military recruiting effort to admit the potential for unintended civilian casualties...

...A typical 2007 National Guard TV commercial, for instance, emphasized “country, community, family” and prominently featured women guardsmen...

...The ad, which is running on 27,000 screens through October, serves as a model example of how to advertise the military during a controversial war...

...Right from the get-go, the ad shows zero tolerance for naysayers...

...unlike guardsmen who merely provide aid during natural disasters at home, they are defi nitely warfi ghters fi rst...