“A country to fall in love with/in”: gender and sexuality in Swedish Armed Forces’ marketing campaigns

Abstract

In 2010, Sweden abandoned its century-old military conscription in favour of an All-Volunteer Force (AVF). The Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) was now exposed to competition over labour, and soldiering was no longer a duty connected to male citizenship. It was a job among many.This thesis studies the SAF's efforts to cast the military organization as an attractive employer and public authority in the era of voluntarism. The aim is to contribute insights into how the Swedish population is called upon to identify as soldiers and supporters of the armed forces in order to enable war preparations and deployments. It does so through a compilation of four research articles, each analysing different sites of military marketing and public outreach, including recruitment campaigns, social media activities and public events. The thesis shows how marketing and outreach promote the SAF as an entrepreneurial and inclusive organisation offering opportunities for personal, professional and corporal development to a wide diversity of citizens. It further demonstrates how the SAF is promoted as both a symbol and guarantor of a responsible and progressive nation/state.By reading the birth of the AVF as a form of government through freedom, this thesis problematises the liberal claim that voluntary military service symbolises a removal of power and government from the private sphere of the individual. Instead, the thesis proposes an understanding of voluntary military recruitment and marketing practices as a regulating form of power. This form of power reproduces neoliberal claims of what it means to be a productive and desirable citizen and suggests ways to achieve this enterprise through different interactions with the armed forces. Consequently, this thesis brings unique insights into efforts made by the armed forces to render war preparations and deployments not only acceptable but also attractive to the population of a liberal democracy.

Army recruitment video advertisements in the US and UK since 2002: Challenging ideals of hegemonic military masculinity?

“…As a result of these representations, the army comes to be constructed as progressive. This is supported by Strand and Kehl's (2018) examination of Swedish Armed Forces advertising campaigns. They find that the Swedish Armed Forces are also portrayed as forward-thinking and that this reinforces and is reinforced by the conceptualization of national identity as progressive.…”

“…Other. As Strand and Kehl (2018: 1) put it, 'We argue that constructions of a tolerant and modern Sweden (re)produce treacherous, single narratives of distant and dangerous Others.' That is, presenting the self as progressive makes possible violent practices in the name of defending this way of life, which is taken to be a positive.…”

“…. 2 YouTube material has also been used by others researching the military (e.g Strand and Kehl, 2018)…”

Fighting for public health: The promotion of desirable bodies in interactive military marketing

“…It is often suggested that armed forces of liberal democracies govern citizens through a consumer market logic. Marketized military institutions are increasingly dependent on the capacity to attract and appeal to voluntary (rather than conscripted) recruits -but also to the broader public -in order to fill their ranks, secure resources and retain legitimacy for war preparations and deployments (Bailey, 2007;Cowen, 2006;Stahl, 2010;Strand and Kehl, 2019). Military sociologists have pointed specifically to the trend among liberal democracies to abandon conscription in favour of All-Volunteer Forces (AVFs), which in turn reduces the percentage of the public in direct contact with military institutions.…”

“…Since around 2010, the SAF has worked resolutely to re-brand the institution through a range of traditional public relations and marketing techniques, but also, and increasingly, through digital outreach including social media campaigns (Strand and Kehl, 2019), milblogs (Hellman, 2015) and smartphone games (Stoehrel, 2013). This follows a broader trend where not only state militaries, but also private military and security companies (Schneiker et al, 2019) and arms producers (Jackson, 2017), increasingly rely on social media in their efforts to recruit both personnel and wider societal support.…”