Then there’s a page of testimonials. “I was really nervous when I first got here. I was scared. Before I didn’t have any confidence at all. It was the greatest experience I ever had in my life. I’m a lot more confident …” —Heather C. Isn’t this super? It’s just what you want to hear from the young people you love.

The Marines don’t shrink from telling you how hard boot camp will be. They tell you you’re going to conquer your normal fears, that it’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, that it’s going to be way more than you expect. But if you can get through this, you can get through anything. God knows you’ll need that confidence later to face the land mines and stuff.

For a youth with few expectations, the Corps offers exciting career opportunities that will help them develop skills and knowledge they can use when they return to civilian life. Aviation, computer technology, construction, transportation, public affairs, electronic surveillance, amphibious assault, machine gunner, antitank missile operator. These kids are definitely going to kill in civilian life.

As with any prospective employer, you’ll want to examine the benefits package. The Marines offer a superlative plan. You’ll get a competitive salary, full medical and dental for yourself and your family, 30 days paid vacation, housing, and generous retirement plans. All that for a high-school graduate? Where else can you do so well? Plus, when you decide to go to college, they’ll pay for it. You’ll have to stay in, and stay alive, for at least four years, though.

Look at the frieze in figure 1 to the right. There are little banners above it, titled “Those Who Are Warriors,” “Those Who Are Driven,” and “Those Who Belong.” Again, they address the same three motivators of unformed youth, ready and eager to be formed. Roll over, and little typewriter-clicks chatter to announce interactivity. Those Who Are Warriors expands to fill the width of the page, and the punching man appears against a sky of radiant blue to the sound of a fast plane whooshing by. Then it breaks up, dissolves, and resolves into a simple image. Click, and the image breaks up and resolves again—repeating the visual theme of the intro—then builds on brand messages such as “Those who are driven … are bold beyond measure … they thirst for adventure … and accept the challenge others only contemplate.”

Figure 1. The “Driven” segment leads with graphic silhouettes that resolve into action photography, delivering exciting text messages along the way. Across the site, as images change they break up as if exploding, then reassemble bloodlessly.

Clickable bars at the top take you through such subjects as “The Best There Is,” “First In” and “Living the Life.” My personal favorite is the “Marines Equipment” item. More powerful graphics pan in and out, resolving to a photo of an armed soldier, crouching at the ready. The headline is “Tomorrow’s Technology Today”—cutting edge, just like they say. Equipment icons are at the left. Roll over them, and a little targeting frame settles over the icon with an electronic beep—just like when you’re shooting down enemy tanks in a computer game. You get to meet the Harrier jet—remember that great scene in True Lies when Arnold Schwarzenegger rescues his little girl from the terrorists? That’s the Harrier. And you could be flying one really soon. Or driving “aggressive ground transportation.” How cool is that? What red-blooded American kid wouldn’t thrill at the prospect of driving aggressive ground transportation?

Those Who Belong is more sober, more stately, focused on respect and tradition. Again, it has a different layout and interface —keeping up that sense of novelty and stimulation—with five content links in subtly shaded boxes arranged in a cross at the right. There’s Marine Lingo—they have their own language, like any club that’s worth anything; the Crucible—a smart reference to Arthur Miller’s historical novel about the formative effect of the Salem Witch trials on young men and women; Sea Stories—one day you’ll have tales like this to tell, too; and the Marines’ Motto, “Semper Fidelis.” Always loyal, the noblest sentiment of all. Loyal to what isn’t entirely clear, but it sounds good.

In every panel, every video clip, and every Flash animation, the designers of this site have followed the best practices of our profession. The visual design is subtle, organized, striking, and made to feel solid and warm through the many-tinted palette of browns and blues and the stable horizontal format. Design unifies the site across the content areas by repeating visual and animated themes. The interactivity is excellent, delivering a vast amount of content into a single, small window. The copy is perfect, establishing clear themes from the outset and paying off on them consistently, using the con. dent voice of controlled passion. Sound is used effectively both to provide affordances to interactive elements, and to put you in the action. The content is deep, interesting, and on target.

Only three things are missing. Blood. Horror. Death.

Presumably that’s understood, which may explain this quote from ArmyTimes.com: “Normally, each service releases its monthly statistics at the beginning of each month, but a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command said on Wednesday that he was no longer authorized to do so. In April, the Corps missed its contracting goal by 260 contracts falling 9 percent shy of its goal to enlist 2,971 recruits—marking the fourth month in a row that the Corps missed its contracting goal.”

Sometimes the best of professional practices fail. Maybe that’s because no matter how gorgeous the presentation, it’s the real product or service that counts.