U.S. Navy Removes Pokemon GO Recruiting Campaign

Imagine what Pokémon would be like if they were militarized - just, try for a second. I mean, imagine the kind of missions big-hitters like Blastoise or Onix would be sent on? And, honestly, most people would assume any of Eevee's evolutions were cute and cuddly until they launched an attack. Really, it'd be a surprise if Pokémon weren't brought into global conflicts should they be real. But, even with them being fictional characters, one branch of the U.S. military opted to recruit Pokémon for a top-secret mission with less-than-great results.

Following Pokémon GO's phenomenal popularity, pictures began circulating online of a few U.S. Navy recruitment posters that promised aspiring military members, "The US Navy has the ability to take you around the world, allow you to play Pokémon Go, and help you achieve the goal of becoming a Pokémon master!"

Say what? The poster then goes on to encourage those interested in signing up to contact their local recruiters if they'd like to find out what the Navy could offer them. But, understandably, the Internet found it very strange that the military would use, "Do you like playing Pokémon?" as their tag line to make future officers interested in serving.

And, apparently, the Navy completely agrees with those thoughts. The Navy quickly dismissed that particular recruitment campaign and had it removed due to its misleading information. In an email statement, the Navy wrote that, "some recruiters made a bad decision in attempting to use the current Pokémon phenomenon to recruit Sailors for the Navy." Since then, all recruitment materials and posts using Pokémon GO have been removed as they don't truly represent what the Navy stands for.