Not sure if you need to be a subscriber to read the whole thing, but Adweek has an interesting report on the McCann creatives who underwent basic training in order to fully understand life in the US Army so they could work on their new account:
By his second day of basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., Craig Markus had had enough. A day earlier, Markus—lead creative on McCann Worldgroup’s U.S. Army account— and 55 of his colleagues had been greeted at the airport by drill sergeants who barked commands and demanded prompt compliance. Now, he was on his second day of 4:30 a.m. wake-ups, followed by push-ups, sit-ups, marching and drills. The Army wanted to make sure that the New York ad executives fully grasped the line they had presented to win the account last December: “Army strong.”
“It was incredibly humbling,” says Markus. “Every person I meet in the Army is truly amazing—what they’re offering to this country, the sacrifices they’re willing to make. These are the people you want fighting for you whether you agree or disagree with the fight.”
The self-described patriotic liberal says some peers have reacted negatively to his working on the account. They equate selling the Army with selling cigarettes. Or worse. As leader of the free world, he answers, the U.S. needs a strong Army, even in peace time.