The Government of Canada is in big trouble with its allies over Canada’s low defence spending. Usually, when criticized for its low spending, Canada in turn points to its international commitments as a rejoinder. (This strategy does not seem to be working well this time around.)
This current crisis reminds me, in part, of a peculiar episode in 2006-2007 when the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. purchased ad space in several D.C. metro (subway) stations.
In November 2006 the Canadians scrambled but still missed getting these new posters up by Veterans Day (our Remembrance Day). The posters were up by November 14, 2006
A few months after the first posters went up, an embassy official described the origins and impact of the “Boots on the Ground” campaign:
The Washington DC Metro Poster campaign was initially conceived as a new media tool to convey our messages to the US decision-making audience in a different and creative way. The point of the campaign is to convey an overall image of Canada as a secure and reliable ally and an important trading partner. The reason this is important is such branding positions us better and more credibly to advocate for priority issues such as the border, tree trade, and North American security.
The first facet we employed of this strategy was to emphasize Canada’s role as a partner in the war on terror - to establish for an audience that can easily forget that Canadian troops are doing their part in Afghanistan. This was the highly successful "Boots on the Ground"campaign. Boots on the Ground illustrated the power of targeted public media advertising in Washington. The campaign's placement of advertising creatives in public transit stations adjacent to the workplaces of decisionmakers resulted in several instances of earned media coverage in the United States from outlets such as the Washington Post, a significant increase in traffic to www.CanadianAlly.com, our website highlighting Canada's contributions to international security, and evidence of discussion of Canada's role among high-ranking Defense and State department officials forwarded email chains and anecdotal evidence).
I pulled the text above from this email pictured below. But please do note that bit at the end that is sanitized in white. The last visible sentence is cut in half, after it begins: “We have endeavoured to harmonize messaging on this with messaging back in Canada, although keeping in mind that what is effective for a….”
In the same month the first posters went up, that is November 2006, Public Affairs staff at the embassy began looking for ad space in Cap South station for February and March 2007.
In early 2007, new graphics were designed to replace the “Boots on the Ground” poster.
The first working tagline was “Fighting for Freedom.”
Then came direction from Ottawa that the new tagline should be “Rebuilding Afghanistan - Securing Our Future.”
Finally, the Afghanistan Interdepartmental Communications Group in Ottawa directed that the new tag line on the subway posters be “Protecting our national interests - Rebuilding Afghanistan.” (The reason was consistency with the broader phrase in use by the government, “Protecting Canadians - Rebuilding Afghanistan”).
What a snooze.
Public Affairs at the embassy was more diplomatic about it:
“This,” wrote someone at the embassy, “is a far cry from Boots on the Ground.”
In early January 2007, a Baltimore Sun article criticized Canadian troops in Afghanistan. The piece quoted a “senior U.S. Special Forces officer” complaining that while Canadians had tanks and light armoured vehicles in Afghanistan, they “refuse to dismount on foot patrols, which are considered more risky but more productive in establishing relationships with the local population.”
The embassy officials pointed out that just as Americans were reading about the increase in violence in Afghanistan, they were reading about NATO allies restricting their activities in Afghansitan. And articles like the one in the Baltimore Sun were lumping Canada in with the Europeans.
The point of the ad campaign was to convince Americans -- especially American military personnel, government officials, and legislators that Canada was “pulling its weight” in Afghanistan, including participating in the risky work being done by American troops.
Clearly, there was a disconnect between how the Government of Canada wanted to describe the Afghanistan mission to Canadians, and what the Embassy thought would be effective for an American audience. (In fact, I think this argument might have been made in the email above, but is sanitized in the release.)
Pointing to the Sun article, Public Affairs at the Embassy suggested that instead of simply “Rebuilding Afghanistan,” the phrase should include “Stabilizing & Rebuilding Afghanistan.”
“Reinforcing our role in combat operations (as we endeavour to do with ‘stabilizing’ is important in the US” because “perception is increasing in US military that Canada is not doing its share of heavy lifting.”
I don’t know if posters went forward with the new tagline. If so, I would be interested to know if the Embassy did any follow up efforts to determine the success of this campaign. I hope someone follows up on this line of research.
Researching in the e-mail era
These emails were released to me in 2015 by the Department of National Defence. When I asked Global Affairs Canada if they had any emails on the same subject, I received a “no records” response. I did not follow up, but I should have.
Only recently have I realized that most GAC divisions do not know that GAC still does hold all of its emails from the 2000s. Already this month I have had several “no records” responses from GAC in response to requests for emails. In each case, I have been able to identify the sender, subject title, and date stamp of the email I am seeking. Only some people in GAC’s ATIP shop know how to find these emails. If you are requesting records from the “email era” and you get a “no records” response from GAC, ask the analyst to check around with other ATIP analysts.
The emails are there.
Updates from me:
This week I spoke at the Alison Des Forges Symposium in Buffalo. The topic was “The Russo-Ukrainian War: Achievements and Limitations of Today’s International System” and I spoke about NATO and the war. Other speakers included Serhii Plohkii, Ken Roth, and George Packer. The most important part, for me, was learning more about Alison Des Forges. If you read about the Rwandan genocide, you probably read her work.
This week also saw the formal publication of my new article in Intelligence and National Security. (It has been available in advanced access format a while now.) The piece is “Indications of war: American, British and Canadian intelligence diplomacy and the 1957 tripartite intelligence alerts agreement.” It is open access and free to read so you don’t need a subscription or to pay for the article. All of the primary sources I used are now available at Canada Declassified.
This is so (wonderfully?) weird. But thanks for the info that GAC emails from that time period are still really there.