I still think about this Marines commercial that would play during games in the 90s.

Had a vet buddy once tell me that everyone in his unit was playing dungeons & dragons on their downtime so maybe this commercial really did work lol

It's fascinating that this 60 second military propaganda from the 90s is more inspired and artistic than your average modern $200M Hollywood slop.

Do you like broadway? Phantom of the opera? Dungeons and Dragons? Chess? Meatloaf music videos? Then Join the Marines, baby!!!

It's almost like their telling you that they play you like you are a piece on a chessboard; they just chose a knight instead of a pawn; as the pawn would make the motive too obvious.

Wow, this was indeed a commercial for the Marines and not a commercial for battle chess…

See, this is what they promise, but you join the marines, instead of battle chess, they ship you to Iraq and you fight the lava monster instead. Locals call it a “Djinn”.

Oh yeah, there’s a whole bit in Generation Kill about these ads snagging a ton of guys:

“Wouldn’t it feel prestigious to go die for Jewish billionaires?”

I met Marines in the service who said they always knew they wanted to be Marines. Not because they were in military families or whatever, they just watched some shit like this when they were 10 and the switch flipped on.

Marine Corps used to go hard, I had this poster on my bedroom wall in the 90s before I joined.

We used to say, "you here too from the Balrog commercial?"

@USMC , you should have an ad campaign for the 250th where you play all your old ads going back as far as they have existed. That'd be awesome

@NjTank99 Someone really loved that 1981 movie Excalibur.

“Join the military and fight to the death for a king who sacrifices you!” ♟️

even as a small child I knew, the black bishop controlling the board is Israel

Yep, they were aming for the autistic community even then.

Holy shit I forgot about this commercial. Man, those were the days.

I still think of the Navy commercial where God Smack is playing over a montage of sailors and Seals doing bad ass shit. Then cut to a used car lot and tge voice iver says "And to think, somewhere a man is about to buy a minivan "

1980s ad with its drumbeat at the end beats that one!

What they don’t show is the hand moving the pieces. The hand that profited from the battle

the Marine Corps "has a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's" - Harry S. Truman

Anyone else notice it said you “have to be smart” and then followed it up with a crayon subscription service?

Looks like Battle Chess

@0ddette This shit almost had my ass filled with holes in the desert

Was too young to remember seeing this on TV but I caught it on YouTube in the 2000s. It contributed both to me joining the Corps and becoming a huge Dungeon Synth listener

Marines: “Hey nerds! You want to do this for real? Enlist today!”

Getting LOTR nerds to basic training is a funny recruitment strategy

Then it would be followed by a commercial for Crossfire! Making me want to battle in giant arenas at night.

I've never seen this one. I always remember this one.

Wow! Takes me back. Haven’t thought of these in years.

Fake news, he didn't even have his high vis belt on

Far and away my favorite commercial for the Marines back in the 90s.