U.S. Army wanted to reach young women, black and hispanic people through Twitch, Paramount+ and WWE

The U.S. Army has had a problem for quite some time now: they are struggling to find new recruits to replace those who are retiring. This has lead to new ideas on how to reach those potential new recruits, and especially women, black and hispanic people.

The idea was to spend millions of dollars on different sponsorships in "esports tournaments, individual high profile Call of Duty streamers, and Twitch events". In many cases these sponsorships didn't happen, because of how Activision Blizzard (publisher of Call of Duty) got mixed up in a bunch of harrassment complaints.

What is clear, is that "the documents show that the U.S. military considered gaming and, in particular, Call of Duty, as a potentially useful branding and recruiting tool." For example, the idea was to spend $750,000 on Call of Duty League Esports tournament, streaming service Paramount+ (and its TV series Halo). Another $200,000 was planned to Call of Duty Mobile.

How do you feel about the military trying to find new recruits via video games? Tell us in the comments.

Thanks, Vice