The Marine Corps is temporarily dropping their recruiting slogan, “The Few, The Proud” in favor of a new advertising campaign.
The Marine Corps is putting the long-running tagline on hiatus, according to the Marine Corps Times.
The tagline made its debut 40 years ago in 1977. It is considered to be one of the most iconic and successful ad campaigns of the 20th century.
New Marine Corps commercials being aired next month won’t include the tagline, Lt. Col. John Caldwell, a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command, told the Marine Corps Times. The commercial will end with the word “Marines” and the Marine Corps’ eagle, globe and anchor emblem as opposed to the tagline.
The slogan won’t be retired indefinitely, however.
“The Few, The Proud’ has not and will not be retired indefinitely,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell added that the reason the tagline is being put on hold is because of a new trend in advertising.
“Nike, a lot of their advertisements now end with the swoosh – or the swoosh and the word ‘Nike’ – but the tagline ‘Just Do It’ or something like that isn’t there,” Caldwell said. “A lot of advertisers … punctuate their advertising products with their brand. That’s effectively what these new TV ads you’re going to see do. They end with our brand.”
“’The Few, The Proud’ does a great job distinguishing ourselves from the other branches and making us prestigious to recruits, but it doesn’t say anything about what we do or why we exist,” Caldwell said in September.
The new campaign is to focus on making Marines, fighting and winning battles, and returning quality citizens back to their communities.
“It has everything to do with clearly defining who we are and what we do as United States Marines. It’s all about our irreducible fighting spirit. That’s the fighting spirit of the organization and that’s the fighting spirit of all its Marines.” Caldwell said in September.
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