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<p>This study employs Erwin Panofsky’s iconographic analysis to decode the 2021 US Army recruiting campaign ‘The Calling’, situating it against the historical backdrop of military recruitment since the all-volunteer force’s inception. Panofsky’s framework allows for a dissection of the campaign’s layered narrative and its animated aesthetics, which notably diverge from prior campaign’s emphasis on the warrior archetype. The analysis progresses from a description of visual and narrative element’s (pre-iconography), to an investigation of symbolic meanings (iconography), culminating in an interpretation of underlying societal attitudes (iconology). ‘The Calling’ reimagines military enlistment as a heroic pursuit, echoing the superhero genre’s origin stories, and emerges as a response to waning interest in military careers. The campaign targets the zeitgeist of the young American population, offering a sense of heroism as compensation in a challenging recruitment climate marked by a robust economy and low unemployment. By presenting service as a ‘calling’, the Army navigates the complex terrain of contemporary cultural values, seeking to resonate with potential recruits on an ideological level, particularly within race and gender minority communities.</p>
</abstract>

This study employs Erwin Panofsky’s iconographic analysis to decode the 2021 US Army recruiting campaign ‘The Calling’, situating it against the historical backdrop of military recruitment since the all-volunteer force’s inception. Panofsky’s framework allows for a dissection of the campaign’s layered narrative and its animated aesthetics, which notably diverge from prior campaign’s emphasis on the warrior archetype. The analysis progresses from a description of visual and narrative element’s (pre-iconography), to an investigation of symbolic meanings (iconography), culminating in an interpretation of underlying societal attitudes (iconology). ‘The Calling’ reimagines military enlistment as a heroic pursuit, echoing the superhero genre’s origin stories, and emerges as a response to waning interest in military careers. The campaign targets the zeitgeist of the young American population, offering a sense of heroism as compensation in a challenging recruitment climate marked by a robust economy and low unemployment. By presenting service as a ‘calling’, the Army navigates the complex terrain of contemporary cultural values, seeking to resonate with potential recruits on an ideological level, particularly within race and gender minority communities.

Beyond the call of duty: Reimagining military service through hero narratives in the US Army’s ‘The Calling’ campaign

Journal of Military Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This study employs Erwin Panofsky’s iconographic analysis to decode the 2021 US Army recruiting campaign ‘The Calling’, situating it against the historical...

Object of interpretation	Act of interpretation
I – Primary or natural subject matter – (A) factual, (B) expressional – constituting the world of artistic motifs.	Pre-iconographical description (and pseudo-formal analysis).
II – Secondary or conventional subject matter, constituting the world of images, stories and allegories.	Iconographical analysis in the narrower sense of the word.
III – Intrinsic meaning, or consent, constituting the world of ‘symbolical’ values.	Iconographical interpretation in a deeper sense (Iconographical synthesis).

Beyond the call of duty: Reimagining military service through hero narratives in the US Army’s ‘The Calling’ campaign

Article Category: Original Study

Online veröffentlicht: 22. Feb. 2024

Seitenbereich: -

Eingereicht: 12. März 2023

Akzeptiert: 24. Nov. 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2024-0002

Schlüsselwörter
US Army, superhero, the calling, recruitment, gender, race

© 2024 Hyunyoung Moon, published by Sciedno

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1:

Fig. 2:

Erwin Panofsky’s three-level framework of iconographic analysis.6

Beyond the call of duty: Reimagining military service through hero narratives in the US Army’s ‘The Calling’ campaign

Article Category: Original Study

Online veröffentlicht: 22. Feb. 2024

Seitenbereich: -

Eingereicht: 12. März 2023

Akzeptiert: 24. Nov. 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2024-0002

SchlüsselwörterUS Army, superhero, the calling, recruitment, gender, race

© 2024 Hyunyoung Moon, published by Sciedno

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1:

Fig. 2:

Erwin Panofsky’s three-level framework of iconographic analysis.6

Schlüsselwörter
US Army, superhero, the calling, recruitment, gender, race