The U.S. Army’s $11 million advertising deal with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his United Football League to bring in new G.I.s may actually have hurt recruiting efforts, according to documents obtained by Military.com.
The contract, which was signed earlier this year, required Johnson to post five Army ads on his Instagram, with each post valued at $1 million. He only posted two. Meanwhile the UFL, a minor league competitor to the NFL co-owned by Johnson was also to show military ads during games and place them on players’ uniforms.
But the deal was reportedly “so catastrophic” that the army projected it may have lost 38 enlistments instead of gaining thousands of new recruits—and now it wants its money back.
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“In terms of The Rock, it’s unfortunate he was pulled away at a time when we expected him to be present with us to create content for his social media channels,” Col. Dave Butler told Military.com. That said, “The Rock remains a good partner to the Army,” Butler added.
Low attendance at UFL games added to concerns over the deal, according to Military.com.
The documents show the Army wants to recoup $6 million from its UFL deal and $5 million from its deal with Johnson.
Laura DeFrancisco, a spokesperson for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, passed on an interview with Military.com and told the outlet that the documents were taken “out of context,” but did not comment on whether there were factual errors.
The failed deal comes after the Army National Guard blew $88 million on a deal with NASCAR, that also yielded 20 recruits, according to USA Today.
The Daily Beast requested comment from Johnson, but did not receive any response at the time of publishing.
Meanwhile, all branches of the military continue to struggle with recruitment, with the Army falling short by 10,000 soldiers in 2023, according to Military.com.
