Those ads you only see in Washington
Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 12:03AM 
WAPO piece on the unique DC advertising culture whereby major defense contractors, like Lockheed Martin, hawk major platforms like new cars:
In the market for a shiny new combat ship? If so, you might be interested in the ads appearing in Metro stations around Washington. "The shape of littoral dominance has a familiar look," Lockheed Martin says over a photo of a sleek naval vessel cutting the waves.
Or how about a nice attack helicopter? Boeing may have just the thing. In a full-page ad in the Hill newspaper, it brags that its AH-64D Apache "is the most powerful and effective combat helicopter in the world."
Tanker planes, light tactical vehicles, jet fighters -- you won't see this kind of hardware advertised in Kansas City or Cleveland, or in Moscow or Beijing. Only in Washington are multibillion-dollar war machines marketed like soft drinks and cellphones. These days, the products of the military-industrial complex are appearing in can't-miss-'em ads in The Washington Post, in Capitol Hill publications such as Roll Call and the Hill, on posters and billboards in Metro stations and even on local radio.
The ads are seen by many but are intended for just a few. With two of the largest defense contracts ever on the verge of being decided, the targets are the several hundred -- and in some cases, several dozen -- people who determine how billions of federal defense dollars will be spent. That means people in Congress, the White House and the Pentagon, as well as a fringe of "influencers" working in think tanks, trade organizations and the media.
Everyone else just seems mystified.
As someone who travels to DC often and usually uses the Metro, I always delight in these ads. They're just so weird and relevant at the same time.
Naturally, they tend toward the Leviathan side of the house. Why? The SysAdmin stuff is all over the news, so it's important to remind decision-makers that this stuff still needs to be bought in some measure.
Reader Comments (1)
As a former (and probably future) DC resident, these ads always bug me. These companies wouldn't be spending money on the ads unless they were effective. So what does that say about our procurement process? Billions in taxpayer money spent on the basis of shiny posters...