British Army highlights how tech cannot replace soldiers in sci-fi-style recruitment ad
The British Army is highlighting that despite technological advancements soldiers remain its most valuable asset in a bid to recruit more youngsters.
The 60-second spot, ‘Nothing Can Do What a Soldier Can Do,’ is part of the ‘This Is Belonging’ campaign, and is directed by MJZ’s Nicolai Fuglsig.
It shows a dystopian future where a robotic soldier scouts the terrain of a conflict zone, which is made of 4,000 individual computer-generated imagery (CGI) elements and 2,000 sound design samples. A voiceover asks, ‘What does the Army of the future look like?’ as the camera disappears down the soldier’s robotic eye socket. It reemerges out of a human eye, and the voiceover says how even the most extraordinary technological advancements can’t replace the value of a soldier. The tagline ‘The Army of the Future Still Needs You’ concludes the ad.
The spot was created by Accenture Song and will be accompanied by an out-of-home (OOH) campaign depicting face-offs between a number of different soldiers and a robot, with lines such as ‘Nothing can think like a soldier can think,’ shot by the photographer Nadav Kander.
The film will run also across TV, cinema, radio, online and social media.
As per recent research conducted by Perspectus Global in June 2022, a third (30%) of Brits say they think the Army may rely on robots for jobs in the future instead of humans.
Siobhan Penrose-Johnson, director of marketing and communications at Defence Recruiting Services, Capita, said: “This year’s campaign is another exciting evolvement of our ‘This Is Belonging’ platform, highlighting another one of the values that makes the British Army one of the most modern and progressive employers in the world.
“Our hero ad aims to show that, while we may live more of our lives online and increasingly in augmented realities (AR), it’s easy to believe that the British Army would become technology dependent. But technology has to work alongside the humanity of soldiers and personnel – the army of the future still needs you.”
Nik Studzinski, chief creative officer at Accenture Song, said: “Building on the success of our last five iterations of ‘This Is Belonging,’ this year’s campaign highlights another strongly-held belief in the British Army; that while they are one of the most technologically advanced in the world with incredible kit and impressive hardware, nothing will ever replace their single most important asset: the soldier.”