By Bill Green
“Army adverts tend to prey on peoples’ insecurities and they also fail to mention the many downsides of becoming a soldier.
My goal was to highlight these problems and to remind people that joining the army is a massive commitment. I hope to influence people to look at how Army adverts are overly attractive, especially to an extremely young audience.” – Bill Green, artist, student, concerned human being @___impactdesign___
Message from VFP UK – Our sincere thanks and appreciation to Bill for contacting us and his willingness to share his works, which correspond to issues that deeply align with our mission and goals as an organization. People deserve to know the truth before they enlist, and military recruiters and adverts should be legally obligated to fully disclose all potential outcomes of joining the military. We will be sharing Bill’s poster series over the next week, to be followed with two short videos to be posted to our VFP UK YouTube channel.
Be informed before you join!
POST EDITED: Some viewers expressed concern regarding the statistic, 82% increase, and did not know what that number referred to. Bill has updated the poster as a result. Please visit articles posted on vfpuk.org and look into this and other important issues for yourself. Knowledge is power.
Veterans For Peace UK 
I believe that young people must hear the truths about going into the military and actually realizing what they must be able to endure. I and my husband belong to Veterans for Peace, chapter 50. We are not veterans but are active associate members.
It is a vital organization and we urge younger adults to hear what our veterans have to say. They are wonderful people who have survived war, and can speak its truths.
Peace, Heldn
I completely agree that we have to be thoughtful about the numbers we use. The reality is that number of increased risk could vary as much as 200% or more based upon the specific subset of veterans investigated. I have followed this post up with commentary on a research article posted in May 2009, that showed the increased risk of young male service members is actually much higher at 3x the rate of civilian counterparts. It is incredibly difficult to accurately measure suicide rates. Regardless, we know that veterans suicide is a big problem that is not being addressed with kids before they enlist. Veteran suicide is barely being addressed by the very governments that are engaging in the endless wars of today, at the financial benefit of a small subset of people who are making billions of pounds off war profiteering.
just to warn against getting too stuck on “accuracy”, as the best minds (!!) work for the Establishment and will protest that corrected figure shows the %age to be only (!!!) 80.3%, not 82%.The media being as they are will try to hide the essence of the issue under statistics (how to lie with…) This has been true in the case of the Holocaust, where it is unacceptable to try to “correct” the usual 6 Million Jews to, say ,5.7 Million. The total evil of the Holocaust relates to the essential, not the “details” (!!) and the insistence on “exact” figures tends to lose this (you’re not quite a Holocaust-denier, but a Holocaust-minimiser ) The wrong thing about recruitment distortions is mainly in the principle than in the exact detail.
David Marchesi, I disagree, there has to be a methodology for any correlation of statistical analysis and that must rest on the results found or they are meaningless, it isn’t a fact of getting stuck on percentages it is about presenting data. For instance I can say that the death rate in Birmingham is 100%, which actually means that everyone in Birmingham dies.
Hi there – I just wanted to reiterate the comments from above and ask what the statistic is in comparison to (i.e. 82% higher than who?) and also ask where it came from? Is there a publication that this links to? I work in veteran research and would be really interested to read any related literature that supports this.
Thanks, Lauren
Looking forward to the series.
I agree with Russel above. Anything we do if it is to hit the bullseye has to be irrefutable and evidence based and if we want to motivate the general public to challenge military recruiters in needs to be easily referenced and confirmed. The 82% figure needs that benchmark comparison alongside if it is to make people think.
Best to All at VFP.
Hi, Currently preparing a thesis on military suicides, would like to present empirical evidence. The post is a bit unclear. Is it 82% compared to RAF/ Navy, 82% higher than the general population, higher in male or female. It is a big claim and it would be very useful in preparing evidence. In addition any links, data, evidence, journals and science would prove useful. Many thanks
This is very good little article. I have been very aware of the issue regarding the rosy pink picture adverts for all the military over the years. It really needs highlighting.