By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – They’ve long been known as devil dogs, leathernecks and “the first to fight.” But U.S. Marines, with their self-described expertise in “killing people and breaking things,” now want to promote their kinder side as well.
A new Marine Corps advertising campaign starting this weekend takes its cue from research showing today’s recruit-age generation is interested in helping people. So the campaign is crafted to show Marines not only as warriors but as humanitarians and peacekeepers; not only as courageous but also as compassionate.
Photos and videos to be distributed on television, in American movie theaters, on YouTube and elsewhere show Marines talking with children; bringing food, water and medical supplies to Haitian earthquake victims, and clearing rubble from a tsunami-devastated Japanese village. These missions aren’t a new role for the Marines, but they are ones the force expects to do more of as it’s freed from a decade of fighting land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and returns to its seafaring, expeditionary roots.