EL PASO, Texas -- Capt. Jessica Johnson, assistant S-3 for the 93rd Military Police Battalion, has given of herself to her Army and her country, but has now also given her voice and her story.
The Dallas native, joined by her parents, took part in the recording of a new Army radio commercial at El Adobe Studios in El Paso July 26.
The session, sponsored by U.S. Army Accessions Command and the advertising firm McCann World Group, starred Johnson and her parents in an effort to encourage young Hispanic-Americans to become Army officers. The three-hour session at El Adobe will soon be produced into 15-, 30- and 45-second radio spots that are planned to air both regionally and nationally.
Ken Walsh, public affairs officer for USAAC’s G-7 directorate, which is responsible for all national and local advertising and marketing research for the Army, came to El Paso to meet with Johnson and her parents and liaison for them at the studio. The former active-duty Army PAO said even though the advertising plan is scientific, he felt the message is heartfelt and important.
“It’ll be distributed through our targeted demographic markets,” said Walsh. “From there we’ll be able to measure response rates through our Nielsen tracking agency on who listened and who responded. This is an awareness and branding process to tell the Army story and show folks that through all ethnicities and all cultures, anyone can be Army strong.”
Johnson said she answered a casting call sent across Fort Bliss via email and though she didn’t expect much out of her audition, being selected meant a lot to her.
“I went figuring ‘what the heck,’ I’ve seen the commercials, let me see if I can do something out of the ordinary,” she said. “The Army has done a lot for me. They paid for school and continue to pay for school. If you’re set on going to college and want to pursue a certain career, you have to have the drive, and the Army gave me the little extra that I needed to help me succeed; I think that’s the message they’re trying to push here and I totally agree with it.”
Though Johnson may have answered an impromptu casting call initiated by field marketing contractors for USAAC, Walsh said his command and civilian advertising agency are streamlining the process by which Soldiers can tell their own Army stories and possibly appear in future advertising campaigns, and it’s centered on the website www.goarmyadvocates.com.
“A lot of people sign up for that through social media and tell us their stories, so it’s not that hard [to find talents] anymore,” said Walsh. “That’s a grass roots channel we use extensively and we developed a few years back with the help from our agency Weber Shandwick. It’s grown dramatically with people who use social media and are on Facebook.”
Johnson said she appreciated the support she’d received from the 93rd MP Bn., a unit that she said stresses the value of education and community involvement, in giving back to her Army.
“They’re supportive in education overall,” she said. “We partner up with schools like Travis Elementary for the Partners in Education program, and the battalion commander (Lt. Col. Vernon Lightner) is big on community service so when I explained to him that I’d been offered this opportunity, he said, ‘absolutely.’ It was great that they were supportive and know what I’m doing here today.”
She added that she also fully supported USAAC’s initiative to inspire young people to join the ranks of Army officers, and especially believed in the value of recruiting future Hispanic-Americans officers.
“If it hadn’t been for a friend or a professor here or there which I happened to listen to, I never would have known that [the commissioning] opportunity was there,” said Johnson. “I knew nothing about ROTC in high school up until my junior or senior year. I have a few Soldiers that have gotten out and are now in school, or others come up to me after going to night school and say, ‘hey ma’am, I finally got my degree.’ That is really rewarding, so if I can help in any manner to get the word out about education, I’d love to do that.
“The Army needs a good representation of the population for which it serves, so I think this is a great opportunity,” she added. “You can be taught all the communication skills and techniques, but there are some connections you can’t create or teach, so to have this [Hispanic-American officer] representation, it’ll just makes those connections that much stronger.”
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