Luis Raul Martinez was enticed into the Navy by a televised image of sailors playing basketball on the edge of an aircraft carrier's deck. And when the advertisement turned up on the Cartoon Network, Martinez was able to show his awestruck younger cousins and nephews how he might live once he finishes basic training.

"Now they show a different lifestyle," said Martinez, 18, of Kendall, Fla., a Miami suburb. "It gives you more information on not only how you can take a journey, but how it could help your career. It's more informative on the Navy as a lifestyle rather than just a battle."

His was just the excited reaction that the armed services were after when they made expensive and eyebrow-raising changes in their enlistment efforts after disappointing recruiting results in recent years. And so far, all figures indicate that these efforts are paying off.

The Army announced this week that it had inducted its 78,500th private of fiscal year 2001, meeting its recruiting goal in the process. The Navy and Air Force expect to make their goals by late September, as do the Army Reserve and National Guard.

The three service branches changed slogans and advertising strategies, not only increasing their television, radio and print presences but venturing into hipper forms of media, including MTV, Fox, Comedy Central, WB and BET. The military has also launched much-improved versions of recruiting Web sites.

"When we changed our slogan from `Be All You Can Be' to `An Army of One' it got a great deal of debate and attention," Secretary of the Army Thomas E. White said this week at a Pentagon news conference. "At the time it was done, a lot of people weren't quite sure if we crazy people were headed in the right direction. But the proof is in the pudding. ... The `Army of One' campaign is working."

More important, perhaps, the recruits say the strategy is working.

"The ad campaign made me feel more comfortable about the Army," said Rodrigo Vasquez III, of Karnes City, Texas, the recruit who was White's guest of honor. "`Army of One,' for me, was about being independent and knowing you can do whatever it takes by yourself."

Chicago's Leo Burnett Co. -- advertising agency for such commercial giants as Coca-Cola, Walt Disney and McDonald's -- handles the Army's campaign. Research indicated that U.S. youth ages 17-24 felt they would lose their identity if they enlisted, said Tim Bergin, account director.

"We needed to do something pretty radical and yet meaningful to get young people's attention, to get people thinking about the Army as an opportunity," Bergin said. "The concept of `One' has a duality meaning: It's being an individual, and it's also being one part of a team. That's what we feel the Army is all about."

"Everything pretty much changed," acknowledged Capt. Gregory Oquendo, Newark, N.J., Army Company Commander. "We were dealing with Gen X, and now it's millennial generation. With each generation comes change. We just have to adapt."

Army commercials profile individual soldiers going through basic training -- deemed the making of an Army of One. The Army has also sweetened enlistment incentives such as money for college, loan repayment and bonuses.

"They're trying to get out there and get people involved," said recent recruit Omar Gordon of Irvington, N.J., who was convinced to join based on the incentives he saw in Army television commercials. "They're really trying to reach out to us and they're doing a good job so far."

The Navy abandoned the slogan "Let the journey begin" in favor of "Accelerate your life."

"Our focus is on honor, courage and commitment, pride of service and the ability to live a life you won't get anywhere else," said Kathleen Donald, senior vice president of Warren, Mich.-based Campbell-Ewald, the ad agency handling Navy's campaign.

The Air Force changed its slogan from "Aim High" to "No One Comes Close" and developed a sleek new logo, and Tech. Sgt. Teresa Kennerly, Air Force recruiter for Washington, has seen a difference already.

"Nowadays there are fewer kids that come from military families. Family can play such an important role in influencing a child's future. The marketing campaign at least lets kids know that the Air Force is out there and what it can offer them," Kennerly said.

Meanwhile, the Air Force ventured into new advertising territory by buying air time. Until 1999, it had relied on public service announcements, which mostly ran on television in the middle of the night.

"An entire generation didn't see our TV ads," said Col. Marianne Rogers, marketing director for Air Force Recruiting Service. "But now, with paid ads we get to choose when we show our commercials and where."

This year's Air Force advertising budget skyrocketed as a result, to $71 million from $16.6 million just three years ago. The Navy spent $74.4 million on advertising this year, up from $67 million in 1998. The Army's advertising 2001 budget is $145 million, up from $97.2 million in 1998.

The television, radio and print ads in each marketing campaign make prominent references to the services' recruiting Web sites.

There, prospects like Sherill Price of Washington can get in touch with recruiters in their area, like Air Force's Kennerly -- a contact that recruiters call a "lead."

"I didn't know where to start," said Price, 17, who attends Washington Waldorf, a small private high school in Bethesda, Md., that didn't provide her information on enlisting. "On the Internet I found a place where I could find all the information I needed, and I got in contact with Sgt. Kennerly."

Price is signed up for the Air Force's Delayed Entry Program and will begin basic training next summer.

Airforce.com had 447,000 visits last July and is snaring one lead for every 177 visits.

The Navy has had similar success with its Web site, averaging 22,000 visits daily, up 50 percent from this time a year ago according to a recent tracking study.

The Navy's site, navy.com, features "The Life Accelerator" -- a set of questions that helps determine which Navy career is best suited for the recruit. The Navy also launched the Hispanic-specific elnavy.com in hopes of recruiting more Latinos.

Daily visits to goarmy.com are up 140 percent and recruiter chat room visits are up 193 percent compared with a year ago, according to U.S. Army Recruiting Command public affairs officer Douglas Smith.

Vasquez -- the star of the Pentagon news conference -- was a Web-based lead. White said that within 10 years the vast majority of the Army's recruits will come from the Web.

Military officials say it will be several months before they know whether the slumping economy has been a significant factor in improved recruiting figures, given the historic lag between a rise in unemployment and a rise in enlistment.

(Jose Alfredo Flores can be contacted at jose.flores(at)newhouse.com)