Army Announces Shortfall in Recruiting Statistics, Thousands Opt Out Children from High School Recruiting Lists and Pentagon Database

Military set to launch sophisticated ad campaign to woo parents.

(PRWEB) October 12, 2005 -- As the army yesterday revealed a shortfall of 6,627 recruits in the annual recruiting figures for 2005, The Leave My Child Alone campaign reveals that in just twenty weeks, over 34,000 families have "opted out" their children from the lists provided by high schools to military recruiters under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Later this month, in part of its billion dollar marketing plan, the military will launch a new advertising campaign aimed at wooing parents. Over 19,000 parents have opted their children out of the controversial Pentagon database since August, through the Leave My Child Alone web site.

Parents deserve clear information about the military, not stealth advertising and relentless recruitment calls at home.

These accelerating opt out rates show that once parents know what's happening, they take action.

Across the country, parents who are worried about the increasingly sophisticated military recruiting techniques have been working with their school boards to provide clearer information about opt out rights. In one school district the opt out rate increased from 16% to 63% when the opt out notification was placed clearly on the required emergency card (Pajaro Valley Unified District, CA). The Leave My Child Alone campaign, a coalition of Mainstreet Moms, Working Assets and Acorn, launched in May this year to alert and help parents to opt out their children from the provision in the No Child Left Behind act that requires high schools to pass on private student information to military recruiters.

The marketing branch of the military, the Joint Advertising and Marketing Research Service (JAMRS) compiles the Pentagon database which gathers youth data on 30 million 16 - 25 year -olds, including social security numbers, cell phone numbers, ethnicity, e-mail, GPA and more. It is held by a private marketing firm for military recruitment purposes. On October 17 the Pentagon is set to launch a costly advertising campaign aimed largely at convincing "influencers," or parents, of the benefits of enlistment for their children. The Army is taking proposals on an unprecedented $1 billion advertising budget for recruiting, built on sophisticated demographic targeting and messaging tailored to overcome wariness of enlistment, particularly on the part of mothers.

For more information please visit www.leavemychildalone.org

Media Contact:

Felicity Crush
415-868-9576 or (main)
415-686-6532

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army recruiting leave my child alone no child left behind act pentagon database military recruiting

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