Part of Me – A Katy Perry Video

I admit it.  I was wrong about this video and Katy Perry.  First, let me give you a little background.

Late last year, singer Katy Perry asked permission to use training resources at Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton in order to make a music video.  To my surprise, and I will confess to my great disappointment as well, the singer was given permission to make the video on the Base. At that time, my office was then tasked with scheduling some of the training facilities used in the video for Ms. Perry. Let me be clear, training units were negatively impacted during the filming of this video and that was my major objection to the use of Base assets in support of, what is clearly, a private enterprise.

Now, having seen the resultant video, I state without fear of contradiction that I was wrong.  The Marine Corps got a tremendous and very positive recruiting tool in exchange for the use of training resources and personnel.  This video is quick, clever, fast paced and very well done. However, my love of this video is not shared by all. The Vigilant Citizen has a much more critical look at this video in its context as a recruiting tool in support of the “… military-industrial complex.”  And Naomi Wolf, author of  “The Myth of Beauty,” doesn’t care for the video at all and calls for a boycott of Ms. Perry. But that said, while I was not a fan of the production process, I remain a fan of this product. And in this case, my being wrong has never worked out better.