The National Gendarmerie goes into “Call of Duty” mode to attract young people, but the message has difficulty getting across

The National Gendarmerie released a clip inspired by the latest video game in the franchise Call of Duty, to try to attract young people and boost recruitment. However, the audacious attempt seems counterproductive.

After seeing the latest recruitment campaign of the National Gendarmerie on social networks, should we salute the genius of the communication teams, should we smile or should we laugh for a comparison between very real security and the virtual world , such an ambiguous subject for President Emmanuel Macron? Perhaps a bit of all three, as the music video inspired by the recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare IIIposted online on Saturday November 18, seems surreal.

The National Gendarmerie literally creates characters like Call of Duty

Every year, 12,000 gendarmes are recruited, so obviously the institution must constantly reinvent its communication and adapt its discourse. A week after the release of the last opus of Call of Dutythe National Gendarmerie had the idea of ​​uploading a clip directly inspired by the game, on the social network X.com (formerly Twitter).

Four gendarmes appear in the video. First there is the “Defender”, embodied by a CRS; then the “Investigator”, a man then a woman dressed in classic gendarme outfit, plus bulletproof vest; and the “Observer”, hidden behind a camouflage uniform, which is obviously reminiscent of military-type field operations.

The Gendarmerie titled its post by writing that it is “ no need to spend money to get the best skins ”, adding that “ the gendarmerie has been available for 300 years “. It obviously refers to the famous skins, these outfits that you can unlock in games like Call of Duty.

A gap between reality and the – violent – ​​world of video games that challenges

Identification with Call of Duty goes far, since the Gendarmerie even goes so far as to imitate the character selection menu. She also thought about transforming the logo of the new game, “MWIII”, into “GNIII”, understand “National Gendarmerie III”. Little innovation from Pandora: the possibility of switching between a male and female character. It’s pretty well seen…

Addressing young people who have not yet found their professional path through the prism of video games is not stupid. Except that here, the National Gendarmerie, whose important missions we know, is presented through a war game, which forces its numerous players to kill. And even if all of this remains virtual, the advertising campaign remains real, and it is this dissonance that calls out, while many point the finger at the sometimes extreme violence of video games, and their consequences on new generations.

But whatever anyone says, and despite the clearly visible criticism on social networks, the buzz is working. In the space of a few days, the video was viewed more than 3 million times on Elon Musk’s social network, then shared by more than 1,000 accounts registered on the platform.