You may well be familiar with the maxim “sex sells”. It is a feature of advertising as old as the craft itself, I would suspect. Indeed, I have featured a number of vintage advertisements on this here very blog over the past six months. You might remember Lolita on the comfy bed; or, Girl next door likes to suck on the most disguising things (and enjoys it!). Who could forget Hot babe in bikini lounges on the beach slowly cooking, but becoming ever more beautiful; a clean home = frisky husband; or (a favourite of my Church of Latter Day Saints-splinter group friends) he has a nice tie and a couple of girls on the go. Of course, there is the good old “treat her mean and keep her keen” approach; the brusqueness of a beautiful, proud Soviet cock standing to attention; and the sexy through the ages “hot babes with even hotter lawnmowers”.
So, despite this technique being as common as the little minx that can be found in the first link, it still jars me ever so slightly to see it applied to joining the armed forces. We’re talking about life of death here, preparing to face death on a daily basis for the protection of your country, it seems to me that a bunch of fellows drawn in for the sexual allure of the uniform might not be the sort of unit best prepared to defend the country.
Today’s ad features the Submarine service. Without doubt, this branch has been amongst the most dangerous (if not the most dangerous) branch of any of the armed forces. For US forces alone during the Second World War, you’re looking at the highest percentage causality rate of any branch of the service, at almost 23%! The nature of submarine warfare itself meant that the attrition rates were high, and that danger was always at hand.
Perhaps that explains the ad. Perhaps fellows belonging to the Submarine Service really did have a greater success rate on the pull than their counterparts in (for example), the Catering or Marines Corps.
So it should be clear that we are talking a real matter of life versus death here. That being the case, I think that they really should have just cut to the chase, thrown the coy subtlety out of the window and included the (edited out) second line:
“... and I volunteered to put it in my mouth!”
Ahem. Too crude? I can only apologise. I am at work, don’t want to be, and am tired and awfully cranky to boot. Please forgive me.
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