PEACE CORPS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

36New Recruitment RhetoricThe AdCouncil was responsible for the Peace Corps’ advertising campaign from1961 until 1991. By the mid-1980s, however, the organization essentially stopped itsPublic Service campaign due to limited budgets during the Reagan years. In 1994,Goodwill Communications began managing the Peace Corps’ marketing and advertisingcampaigns, which was the first step toward changing their recruitment strategies.A major hurdle for agencies like the Peace Corps has been finding media outletsthat will air or publish their PSAs. Spokespeople have directly blamed the changing PSAlaws on the lack of Peace Corps attention in the media. Charles Brooks, the associatedirector of volunteer recruitment and selection for Peace Corps, claimed in a 2005interview, “It has been increasingly difficult for the Peace Corps, an independent agencythat reports directly to the president, to get the word out about itself. We do not havepaid advertising. . . . We’ve just never been funded at the level to be able to do that.” 92The organization has relied on donated time both for the design of their campaigns andfor the implementation of those campaigns.A problem is the reduced number of Public Service spots available to non-profitorganizations. As Scot Roskelley, a spokesperson for the organization, stated, “ThePeace Corps used to be the beneficiary of lots of public-service announcements (PSAs).The Peace Corps had a lot of free TV time. But public-service requirements forbroadcasters have gotten more lax, and there are a lot of not-for-profit agenciescompeting for those PSA slots. So there are several generations that haven’t grown upwith the Peace Corps’ classic slogan: ‘The toughest job you’ll ever love.’” 93TheAmerican public in the past would have known the Peace Corps’ famous slogan because