Granted, there is some Iraq war imagery in this Marine Corps ad, but mostly it evokes the warm fuzzies of the Last Good War. Marines haven’t stormed an actual beach in 50 years, but it’s hard not feel a spike in your testosterone levels and that strange, crazy wish that you had maybe fought in just one little battle. But you have to remember that probably half those people you see in the commercial wading ashore were either killed or wounded.

It seems like it took the Marines a long time to figure out how to make their recruiting commercials work. Often, they relied on childish medieval imagery or something “high-tech” looking that gave no sense of the Marines Corps’ history or reputation. The new commercial (you can view it below) is just quality advertising and it could be a brilliant move for Marine recruitment and it reminds me that the military is really just a business. I’m surprised it took them so long to figure out that the best way to drum up business is to tap into people’s sense of nostalgia and doing what’s “right.” It reminds of something I read about how during World War Two FDR ordered that images of dead Marines be included in newsreels. Almost immediately, war bond sales rose while Marine recruitment plunged. Note to the ad team: Marines storming beaches, never bleeding on them.