Time Magazine: A Time To Serve

[BillB]

SARKID,  The video downloads from CAP CHANNEL, are not broadcast quality according to three TV stations I took them to. They are OK for computer monitor screens, but when shown on a 27 inch TV set are pretty poor. As far as any tapes being available from National, I haven't heard of any lately. A CD with TV spots was available a couple of years ago. In 2002 CAP did a combined recruiting Public TV CD/DVD that barely met broadcast quality and it ran 11 minutes which could be used by public TV stations as a fill.

[IceNine]

I know they exist, but you said it yourself.

They are NOT broadcast quality.  I already talked with insight in my area they are willing run a well formatted PSA for 2 months at a time. They require new commercials after 2 months, and they only want 100 a year.

I cannot put together a broadcast quality commercial and they get an extra KiloBuck to tape it for you.

[JC004]

...
I cannot put together a broadcast quality commercial and they get an extra KiloBuck to tape it for you.

Sure you can, spotrunner.com, just probably not about CAP   

[MidwaySix]

 from the Time Magazine piece...

"I addressed a group of recruiters last year and I asked them if they'd prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army. They unanimously chose the Jenna option. If you get privileged youth serving," he adds, "it makes recruiting a lot easier."

Let's recruit, train, and deploy some famous people... when it comes to just pilots you have...

• Angelina Jolie
• Michael Dorn
• Tom Cruise
• John Travolta
• Hugh Downs
• David Lee Roth (who btw, just became an EMT)
• Zach Braff

Putting CAP money into advertising is not the way to go.

You want our media budget competing with national brands?

PR and PSAs are the way to go here...

...but for crying out loud.... why haven't I seen us featured just ONCE on the Military Channel?

I could go on...

- M6

[JC004]

^^ Midway Six is on my Public Affairs team for when I assume control of National

[IceNine]

PR works itself out in Hostile takeovers...

[Major Carrales]

Well...you just seemed to dismiss him without so much as a 'hey...thats a good idea, thanks'. We'll never get cadets to post here more frequently with that attitude.

Ha!  Give the Cadet a chance to make his own points.  The idea is for them to learn mental strength for within...my points were valid, I was not insulting...it was the cadet's turn to make a point.

 

[RogueLeader]

didn't we pay like $5 million for a nascar ad, that would make great leaps and bounds for national PA.

[flyerthom]

didn't we pay like $5 million for a nascar ad, that would make great leaps and bounds for national PA.

Would have helped if maybe the car would have won a race.

[A.Member]

from the Time Magazine piece...

"I addressed a group of recruiters last year and I asked them if they'd prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army. They unanimously chose the Jenna option. If you get privileged youth serving," he adds, "it makes recruiting a lot easier."

Let's recruit, train, and deploy some famous people... when it comes to just pilots you have...

• Angelina Jolie
• Michael Dorn
• Tom Cruise
• John Travolta
• Hugh Downs
• David Lee Roth (who btw, just became an EMT)
• Zach Braff

Putting CAP money into advertising is not the way to go.

You want our media budget competing with national brands?

PR and PSAs are the way to go here...

...but for crying out loud.... why haven't I seen us featured just ONCE on the Military Channel?

I could go on...

- M6

As much as I'd like to her throw her down, Angelina wouldn't exactly make a good "poster child" for this organization.  And who is Zach Braff?!  But I do understand your point.  PSA's and a good, solid PR campaign is what's need most.  However, we must do some advertising. 

We should have some exposure on The Military Channel.  But we don't.  We should have a nationally coordinated program for distribution on local access cable television.  But we don't.  Even something like sponsoring banner ads on Airliners.net, Avweb.com, Aviationweek.com, etc. may provide benefit. 

As for paying for the advertising (and other things), we could cancel the Cessna order for 182's and sell off our GA-8's and Archer systems - the second biggest CAP boondoogle in history next to the NASCAR deal.  I'm serious.  We never should've gone with the 182's for a number of reasons.  We should've stuck with steam-gauge 172's at a savings of ~$100K per aircraft.   This however is another post.

[RiverAux]

Hugh Downs?  At least he fits the image of CAP as being made up of people over 75. 

BTW Zach Braff is the lead guy on "Scrubs"

[♠SARKID♠]

Hugh Downs?  At least he fits the image of CAP as being made up of people over 75. 

It's a shame Lloyd Bridges isnt alive.  (See!  I may be young, but I know the classics!)  We have a pilot in our squadron who looks EXACTLY like Bridges!

[Major Carrales]

Hugh Downs?  At least he fits the image of CAP as being made up of people over 75. 

It's a shame Lloyd Bridges isnt alive.  (See!  I may be young, but I know the classics!)  We have a pilot in our squadron who looks EXACTLY like Bridges!

You are much as I was...I grew up with older folks in that I played violin in a church choir with my Granddad.  The result was I knew things most people my age did not.

I hope you don't think I was trying to flame you before...

[♠SARKID♠]

No no no! Totally fine!  I should have put a smiley in there   

[Matt]

I hope you don't think I was trying to flame you before...

You need any lighter fluid? 

[JohnKachenmeister]

from the Time Magazine piece...

"I addressed a group of recruiters last year and I asked them if they'd prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army. They unanimously chose the Jenna option. If you get privileged youth serving," he adds, "it makes recruiting a lot easier."

Let's recruit, train, and deploy some famous people... when it comes to just pilots you have...

• Angelina Jolie
• Michael Dorn
• Tom Cruise
• John Travolta
• Hugh Downs
• David Lee Roth (who btw, just became an EMT)
• Zach Braff

Putting CAP money into advertising is not the way to go.

You want our media budget competing with national brands?

PR and PSAs are the way to go here...

...but for crying out loud.... why haven't I seen us featured just ONCE on the Military Channel?

I could go on...

- M6

Hugh Downs is still alive?

[Lancer]

You need any lighter fluid? 

Is that how you light a fire under your cadets Lt? 

[JohnKachenmeister]

OK, my dream CAP PR/Advertising adventure:

1.  Paid advertising.  There should be a good CAP ad in every aviation interest magazine.  Tailor the ads for:

    Pilots:  AOPA Pilot, Flying, Private Pilot, Plane and Pilot, etc.
    Non-pilots:  Aviation History, Warbird Classics, etc.

Goal:  To recruit pilots, and to recruit non-pilots who have a strong interest in aviation and who would like to fly, but who don't make enough money at "Frankie's Glisten n Gleam Car Wash" to take flying lessons.  The non-pilot ads should emphasize opportunities to fly as an observer.

2.  Targeting the youth:  MTV, VH1, and high school and junior high magazines.  The ads should be hip and feature cool teenagers in service dress blue and in BDU involved in ES tasks.   A good idea would be to produce mini-profiles of our cadets, like the "I'm the NRA" series of ads.  DO NOT use cherry-cheek pre-teens in advertising like NHQ always wants to do.  If I find that guy who puts cute little kids in BDU in CAP recruiting literature I will run him down with a loser NASCAR racer.  Even if a kid IS a cherry-cheeked pre-teen, he DESPERATELY wants to be a cool teenager.  Don't they know that the target audience of "High School Musical" is NOT high school kids?

3.  PSA's:  How hard would these be...

    Picture a takeoff of a Blanik L-23 climbing into a sunny sky behind a CAP C-182, with inviting fair-weather cumulus clouds dotting the sky.  Then, a professional announcer (with well-modulated masculine intonation) begins reading "High Flight" while the sailplane, with "Civil Air Patrol" emblazoned on its fuselage, does a series of graceful maneuvers in the air.  At the end, characters come on the screen "Brought to you as a Public Service by your Civil Air Patrol,"  and add the website for a visit.

    Continue the mini-profiles of both cadets and officers, with 30-second insights into their lives.  Switch images every 5-7 seconds, with voiceover.  Message theme:  "Gawd, but we are all so dang good-lookin' and succesful."

4.  Feature-length material.  Anti-Submarine operations are a great untold story.  So is inland SAR.  Do we have any assets in-house that could produce a half-hour series to air on the Military Channel?  I'll bet we do if we look hard enough.

4.  A CAP movie.  Harrison Ford as a former barnstormer at the start of World War II who gets rejected from the Air Corps as too old, but who joins CAP and flies to Glory and Honor attacking German submarines.  And he gets the hot girl, who was the CAP radio operator who heard his distress call after joining the "Duck Club."

[Skyray]

Hugh Downs is still alive?

He has an advanced degree in gerontology from Hunter College, which probaly why he is still going strong at 86.

[Matt]

You need any lighter fluid? 

Is that how you light a fire under your cadets Lt? 

I provide the fluid... they provide the fire... a handful are/were scouts... and, therefore by definition are pyros...