Following several months of missed recruitment goals, the U.S. Army recently added $500 million to its recruitment campaign. This week, a new wave of join-the-Army commercials started appearing on TV, and they’re quietly diabolical and terrifying.

In one ad, a young African-American man serenely presents a stack of Army pamphlets to his mom, whose worry he soothes by citing the Army’s ability to help pay for college. “Besides, it’s time for me to be a man.”

In another, a young Caucasian man defends his dream of enlisting in the Army Reserves over a game of pool with his dad, whose fears for his son are conquered by the young man’s devotion to “be a part of something real,” no matter what his liberal-pacifist dad thinks.

Both ads presenting military enlistment as a move so brave and punk-rock it’s bound to frighten your parents, but if you’ve got the fire in the belly, you’ll be able to bring them round to what’s right.

Genius, and horrifying.