“The Few. The Proud,” may soon end as the U.S. Marine Corps’ recruiting slogan.
Americans have seen the Marines’ classic slogan in television ads and in recruiting material since 1977, but a new generation is primed for something different. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has approved an advertising campaign that gives writers permission to discard the tagline.
“’The Few, The Proud,’ does a great job distinguishing ourselves from the other branches and making us prestigious to recruits, but it doesn’t say anything about what we do or why we exist,” Lt. Col. John Caldwell, a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command, told the Marine Corps Times on Monday. “The new products are going to frame everything that we do as a fight — a fight that we intend to win.”
Other popular slogans the branch of service have used over the past four decades include “If Everybody Could Get In The Marines, It Wouldn’t Be The Marines,” and “We’re Looking for a Few Good Men,” although the officer said the new campaign is not linked with efforts to incorporate women into combat jobs.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with that,” Lt. Col. Caldwell told the newspaper. “It has everything to do with clearly defining who we are and what we do as United States Marines. It’s all about our irreducible fighting spirit. That’s the fighting spirit of the organization and that’s the fighting spirit of all its Marines.”
MCRC plans to submit its new advertising campaign to senior Marine Corps leadership for approval late this year or early in 2017, the officer said.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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