In the 1980s, perception of the United States Armed Forces was at a dismally low point, primarily due to complex problems surrounding interventionism internationally. America was still reeling from the backlash of the Vietnam War of the 1970s, and the US military was carrying the haunting images of destruction on its back. In the summer of 1986 though, the United States Navy received a significant boost in recruitment and perception from an unlikely source: Hollywood.
By cooperating with the filmmakers by allowing them to use F-14 Tomcats and the San Diego Naval Facility, the US Navy gained a valuable tool in drawing in new potential recruits for service: dramatic cinema full of Hollywood A-listers. This in turn spurred a new appreciation for the Navy and the Top Gun program.
This appreciation in turn showed itself remarkably in an interesting trend: the increase in applications to the Navy and more specifically, looking to join the Top Gun program. Due to the glamour and adrenaline pumping action depicted in the movie, tied with the camaraderie of the service and the nature of the work, recruiters saw a spike in people wanting to join after seeing the movie, and while they weren’t officially allowed to recruit in tandem with the movie, would sit outside theaters where it was playing to draw in new potential recruits.
This campaign was a huge success for the image of the Navy and the Armed forces as a whole, and the continuous earned media it provides the Navy in the spread of its success can’t be understated. I think this movie presents the gold standard of how to effectively develop pro-military propaganda through the medium of blockbuster cinema, and echoes of the technique can be seen in similar movies that followed it.
Game Theory and Geopolitics 