A new ad campaign for the British Army celebrates turning failure into success, following research that found 81 percent of young people don't achieve their goals because they fear failing.
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The 'Fail. Learn. Win' recruitment campaign shows how it is only by failing, learning and growing, that soldiers can become their best.
A press release says: "The new recruitment campaign shows the positives of failure and how failing is not a reason to quit, but a way to learn and grow, in order to win when it really matters.
"This is a stark contrast to wider society where failure is often seen as a weakness, to be avoided at all costs, and many are obsessed by projecting perfection through social media, exam results and material objects."
It follows research from the British Army conducted by Perspectus Global, which found that 76 percent of young people feel held back by a fear of failure when taking on new challenges.
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A total of 54 percent of 16-25-year-olds asked also claimed a fear of judgement from other people was the main reason they were scared to fail.
Of the respondents, 78 percent admitted to learning from past failure, while 83 percent agreed that failure is an important part of learning and growing.
The ad campaign, which launched today, is an integrated campaign across TV, radio, online and social media.
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The TV adverts show soldiers as they face failure - one face-down in the mud, another struggling to keep the pace on a training march - with both able to overcome it thanks to the sense of belonging they have with the Army.
The radio adverts, meanwhile, take examples of failure in a wider Army context, showing that when 'training hard enough, aiming high enough, and pushing themselves far enough', soldiers can 'achieve their full potential'.
Lieutenant General Sir Tyrone Urch, Commander Home Command, said: "In a uniquely demanding year for us all, it has been remarkable and really encouraging to see the huge numbers of talented young people looking to join the Army. It's testament to a fantastic team effort, to dedicated staff going the extra mile in extraordinary circumstances, to another great marketing campaign, and of course to the impressive young men and women who volunteer to serve.
"The 2021 'Fail. Learn. Win.' campaign will take us forwards again. At its core it reminds us that in the Army we are proud to train to the point of failure, so we can learn and grow. That's the way we nail it when it really matters. Aim too low and succeed? No thanks. We're the British Army. Be the Best."
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Nick Terry, Chief Marketing Officer Recruiting Group, added: "We take great pride in seeing candidates grow in confidence throughout the recruitment process. There can be a perception that there is no room for failure in an Army career, but we want to show that failure is embraced as a powerful learning tool with this year's recruitment campaign.
"We hope the campaign will lead to potential applicants seeing the Army as a supportive place where they can fail, learn and win as part of a continually uplifting team to become the best version of themselves.
"The recruitment campaign in 2020 was one of our most successful to date and we hope to replicate that success in 2021. In January last year, four days after launch of the last campaign, the record was broken for the highest number of applications received in a single day."
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