Battleship (2012): The Potential of Science Fiction Film for the Dissemination of Recruitment Marketing

Sa？etak This text attempts to analyze the American science fiction movie Battleship (2012, directed by Peter Berg) in the context of a recruitment marketing campaign undertaken by US Navy. The author’s motivation for this approach is the extremely favorable depiction of the US Navy in this movie and the extensive engagement of the Navy in the making of the movie, which was also documented. The basis for the analysis is the comparison of isolated key parts of the Navy’s Internet recruitment advertisements with the methods used by Battleship to reproduce those same key parts found in the advertisements. Also, the text attempts to widen the context by offering a brief theoretical insight into the capabilities of the mass media of film (especially science fiction film) to convey a recruitment message, having in mind that the target population is between 17 and 43 years old. Finally, the text warns against the potential of American film to use its global spread to impose the American view of the army and war, not only on potential recruits in the USA, but also on a global scale