Rebranding the Pentagon

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A recent marketing study commissioned by the U.S. military concludes that its "show of force" brand has limited appeal to Iraqi consumers. The 211-page, $400,000 study was written by psychologist Todd C. Helmus and is titled "Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation." Instead of the "force" brand, the study argues that a more effective brand might have been "We will help you." According to Duane Schattle, whose urban operations office at the Joint Forces Command ordered the study, the purpose was to find "something we can learn from Madison Avenue or from the marketers, the best in the world, that might help us when we're trying to deliver a message about what democracy is."