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$59 million sought for awareness campaign

You may be spotting Air Force messages a lot more often in print and television ads.

While most Air Force programs are expected to get little, if any, more money in fiscal 2009 — and the service looks to eliminate 12,600 positions — the Air Force wants to more than double its advertising budget, pumping up the spending plan to $112.5 million.

Beyond the typical advertising to convince young adults to consider joining the service, the Air Force wants to wage a campaign explaining the Air Force mission to a wider, and older, general public — the folks who pay taxes, elect lawmakers and whose children join the service.

In recent years, the service’s recruiting advertising budget has averaged about $53 million. The dollars pay for efforts such as the “Do something amazing” campaign. The 2009 budget proposal slightly increases the core recruiting advertising budget, but sets aside another $59 million for the wider effort.

The Air Force’s budget proposal makes clear that service leaders think the stakes are high. If the Air Force can’t raise its profile compared to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, the service will suffer, it states.

“Without the funding, the ability to educate the American public about Air Force roles and missions will be limited ... ultimately creating a gap between the public and the Air Force ... and the Air Force’s ability to maintain its stature amongst the other services,” the budget request declares.

Air Force officials believe Congress and the public are focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Army and Marine Corps do most of the fighting. Therefore, efforts to expand the Air Force’s high-tech fleet of aircraft and the service’s cyber mission are taking a backseat to the immediate needs of the wars.

One example of the service’s frustration: Its yearlong effort to win a $20 billion a year budget boost has gained little traction with lawmakers.

Critics of the Air Force point out that many of the service’s wounds are self-inflicted — from the botched deal to lease tankers to a base-closure plan that left some Air National Guard units with no aircraft, angering state and federal lawmakers.

In written comments to Air Force Times, the service defended the additional expenditure in what is a tight budgetary environment.

“Our research found that the American public doesn’t understand the Air Force — who we are, what we do, why we do it — as well as we believe they should,” the statement said.

The Air Force sees this “brand awareness” advertising as a complement to its traditional efforts to recruit airmen.

“To meet our recruiting goals in the years ahead, it’s important that America’s communities of parents, influencers and potential recruits understand how ... the U.S. Air Force has evolved to meet the challenges of defending our nation.”

The proposed advertising campaign’s goals are laid out like the strategic targeting plan of an air war.

The targets are 220 million adults. The goal is that each adult over a year’s span will see 30 Air Force advertisements, from ads on Web sites to full-page newspaper ads to prime-time television ads.

Success will be measured by creating a positive attitude about the Air Force. “The program seeks to change a mind-set by educating the American public on how today’s Air Force is the most engaged, versatile and high-tech of all the military services,” according to the budget proposal.

Even if the service gets the additional dollars, the bigger advertising budget does not change the ongoing drive to cut the number of recruiters through 2011. The Recruiting Service, headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, employs about 2,450 airmen and civilians, with about 1,500 airmen working as recruiters. Plans call for eliminating about 300 positions and eliminating the headquarters staffs for four squadrons.