IDF 'brand' a myth

The IDF is without a doubt the most powerful brand name in Israel. At the same time, it's also the most baseless brand. This is a case study that should be examined and taught at universities across the world. Why? Because the way it's perceived among the general public is directly opposed to its essence.

Any marketing rookie will tell you that a brand that does not deliver on its promises is destined to disappear. One of the biggest paradoxes I'm familiar with is that the IDF is a brand that most of the population had personal experience with it over time, knows it through and through, and knows that its essence contradicts its image. And still, it adopts and boosts this unfounded image.

IDF in Gaza (Photo: Reuters)

To clear any doubts, I will immediately note that the IDF is a powerful army that can boast numerous achievements, but the distance from this to the images we so much like to adorn it with is great. The IDF's perceived images are as follows: The best army in the world. A smart, sophisticated army. A people's army. A moral, humane army. A quick and efficient army.

Let's examine these images, one by one.

The best army in the world. Is this really true? Who decided? According to which criteria is the IDF better than all others? Is it better than the US Army? The British? German? Chinese? The IDF is a powerful army, but the best in the world? Anyone who served in the IDF knows how far removed this title is from reality.

A smart, sophisticated army. There's nothing further from the truth. The military is manned, in large percentages, by people who are neither smart nor sophisticated, but rather, people who are not open to change and lack imagination.

Just like any other total institute, the army is based on a regime of following orders, as opposed to a culture that encourages creative thinking. The IDF tramples on and suppresses any opposing thoughts. In the IDF, the average, grey, and conventional set the tone, while the brilliant and nonconformist are silenced and pushed away.

And as despite all the cutbacks the IDF still enjoys a wealth of resources, it tends to solve every problem with more force as opposed to more creativity. So in reality, instead of having a smart, sophisticated army, we have a strong, thuggish one.

A people's army. This is a myth born when the state was established, when the entire people was an army. The truth is that the IDF has a long time ago ceased being the people's army. Not everyone does their mandatory service, and most of those obliged to perform reserve duty do not do so.

In reality, the IDF is the complete opposite of the people's army. It is the army of the suckers. Those suckers who through no choice serve in the reserve forces, and face the danger of being dismissed by employers who are members of the same "people" yet unwilling to employ the suckers called upon to defend them.

Not to mention institutions of higher learning unwilling to show consideration to those suckers, or state institutions who refuse to show consideration to self-employed suckers. In short, we have an army and we have a people. What we don't have is a "people's army."

A moral, humane army. This legend was nurtured over more than 30 years of occupation, through the slogans "enlightened occupation" and "purity of arms." As if such things exist. Even assuming the IDF's intentions were pure, there is no possibility of maintaining an occupation, which is a synonym of suppression, in accordance with morale, humane standards.

The occupation has corrupted and still corrupts our best youngsters, who are forced to deal with checkpoints, arrests, targeted assassinations, and the daily friction with a hostile civilian population.

True, those things are a necessity. But is the occupation itself necessary?

Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, may he rest in peace, warned us and predicted today's reality in the early days following the Six-Day War. Yet in the euphoria that overcame us at the time, who even listened to him? Who listens to prophecies of apocalypse? Today we're paying the price for this. We "got screwed."

An efficient army. I am unfamiliar with any organization that is less efficient and more awkward and cumbersome than the IDF. This is a body where blatant waste is so deeply entrenched that there's almost no way to uproot it. There's no area of activity in the IDF where we cannot do the same thing using much less resources and much less encumbrance. The army looks just like its commanders' potbellies.

I admit that I'm neither a military genius nor an expert on organizational methods, but I have no doubt at all that in order for an army to be efficient, it must be slim. It's some kind of natural law.

In the face of all the empty slogans and images that we so much like to create for the IDF, one timeless slogan remains that presents the naked truth: "Logic has not yet been enlisted and justice was discharged a long time ago."

This slogan is entrenched in every rookie from his first day at the induction center and has been passed on from one round of recruits to the next for more than 40 years. This slogan expresses, more than anything, the essence of the IDF. It was not born in a vacuum. Every soldier knows it and identifies with it, because it's true.

So how has this myth called IDF nurtured nonetheless? For this I only have one answer (and I admit that it's somewhat simplistic): We like to fool ourselves. Despite our familiarity with the truth, we find that it's pleasant to enjoy something that is seemingly successful and that we're an inseparable part of.

And now I'm getting to the welcome appointment of Amit Livni, as the man in charge of strategy at the IDF's Spokesperson's Office – or in the terms we're familiar with, he was appointed as the IDF's brand manager. Amit is among the best professionals out there and certainly the right man for the job. Does he have a chance to succeed?

If we're talking about the internal arena, then his job, as I noted above, is easy. We love to love our IDF anyway. Yet it appears to me that Amit was recruited mostly to "salvage" the brand on the international arena, and here he is facing an impossible mission for three reasons:

• Because a-priori, the world doesn’t like us. It doesn't like Jews in general and Israelis in particular.
• The world loves us even less when we're winning. The world prefers the underdog, even if it's murderous and cruel.
• It's impossible to present an occupation army as a just army. It's an oxymoron.

There is nothing left but to wish Amit Livni success in his post, in the hopes he proves me wrong.

What happened since then?

This is the column I published at the time. Since then, two things happened.

Dan Halutz was appointed as chief of staff (about a year after Amit Livni's appointment) and brought with him a new IDF spokeswoman who came with her own agenda. Branding was not a top priority, and therefore Livni was marginalized and along with him the branding effort.

A year later the second Lebanon War broke out and exposed the army's maladies, which I warned about in this column, thus greatly undermining the myth we so much loved to love.

Now, the army is of course busy, we should hope, with more urgent and important things.

Now we need to build a new army (not to rehabilitate the old one, but rather, build a new one,) and only once this mission is completed, we can again worry about branding.

The writer is the CEO of the ADMAN advertising, marketing, and media manpower agency