U.S. Marine recruiters open a new front

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The U.S. Marines are looking for a few good women.

Actually, they'll take as many as they can get. Faced with the difficulty of recruiting during a long and unpopular war, the Marines have started marketing itself to women in a concerted way for the first time. It is running ads in magazines like Shape, Self and Fitness, which appeal mainly to female readers, as well as through more mainstream outlets like "American Idol," where the message is a unisex one of patriotism rather than macho swagger.

The Marines still run their traditional ads - during basketball and hockey games, and in magazines like Sports Illustrated and Men's Fitness - often showing male recruits parachuting from airplanes, wielding big guns, driving heavy tanks and stampeding across the ground.

But now it is also showing a softer side. In the latest campaign, a print ad shows a female marine striking a martial arts pose in front of a crowd of men who are looking up to her as their leader. The tag line: "There are no female marines. Only marines."

IHT