The Marine Corps may soon bring an end to the longstanding and iconic recruiting slogan, "The Few. The Proud. The Marines."
The tagline made its debut nearly 40 years ago, in 1977. It is considered to be one of the most iconic and successful ad campaigns of the 20th century.
"’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,” Lt. Col. John Caldwell, a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command told the Marine Corps Times.
Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has approved an ad campaign that gives writers permission to replace the tagline. The new campaign is expected to be launched next year.
J. Walter Thompson, the agency that created the tagline, is already coming up with ideas for a new campaign which could be submitted to senior Marine leaders late this year or early next year, Caldwell said.
"The new products are going to frame everything that we do as a fight — a fight that we intend to win," he told Marine Corps Times.
He said that the ad campaign will be based on three key concepts: "fighting self-doubt to become a Marine, fighting the nation’s battles and fighting for what’s right in our communities," the Marine Corps Times reported.
Caldwell said that replacing the tagline "The Few. The Proud. The Marines" is not the focus of the new ad campaign, but instead "consistent messaging."
Caldwell said that that the new campaign will not include a slogan that will be more inclusive to women.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with that,” Lt. Col. Caldwell told the newspaper. “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.”