Situation:

Unemployment among young US military veterans, whether male or female, is nearly triple the national average.

Objective:

Inspire the Call of Duty community to take action against the problem of military unemployment.

Insight:

The only thing tougher than military service is the stereotypes you face when you return.

Idea:

Let real men and women of the military share the only thing that can change perceptions about military employment - the honest truth.

How the idea engaged with issues of gender representation:

One of the strongest voices in the film was a former female Marine of color who dispels several stereotypes with poise and humor.

We consciously made an effort to feature both male and female military veterans in our idea, showing that military unemployment is something that all veterans face.

Clients brand values toward gender representation:

Call of Duty has taken great strides to bridge that gender divide we see within video games. They feature playable female characters in game that are no different (beyond aesthetics) than male characters. They have the same badass uniforms, weaponry and skills as their male counterparts.

Likewise, outside of the game, Call of Duty supports both male and female veterans equally through an initiative known as Call of Duty Endowment (CODE), that seeks to place military veterans in high-quality careers. The Endowment has funded the placement of over 11,000 veterans into high quality jobs. 23.4% of those placements were for women veterans, well above their representation in the military (15%).

Campaign strategy:

Our campaign strategy was to share the honest truth that both men and women returning home from service face as they reenter the workforce.

We organized a series of real life interviews conducted over Google Hangouts and Skype, putting real men and women of the military in front of the webcam. We then asked them a simple question: tell us what it’s REALLY like for a military veteran to find a job.

We then compiled their responses into one video that was hosted on Call of Duty’s YouTube channels.

With little paid media support, we were able to rally Call of duty fans to spread the news on social media.

The Honest Truth was named one of the top 10 ads of 2014 by industry press. And even the Joint Chiefs of Staff shared our PSA with their network of veterans. Most importantly, the Call of Duty Endowment more than tripled the job placements for veterans it facilitated in 2014 (to more than 7,500).

By dispelling false stereotypes about veterans, we are hoping to make employers more amenable to hiring them and ultimately decrease the number of unemployed veterans.