The U.S. Army’s $11 million advertising deal with Dwayne “The Rock”Johnson and his United Football League to bring in new recruits was so “catastrophic” it may have actually hurt recruiting efforts, according to a new report.
The high-profile deal, which was signed earlier this year, required Johnson to post five Army ads on his Instagram, which has 396 million followers, according to Military.com. Each post was valued at $1 million, but the Hayward-born global superstar only posted two.
Meanwhile the UFL, an upstart minor league alternative to the NFL co-owned by Johnson, was to show military ads during games and place Army logos on players’ uniforms during its inaugural season, from March through June. Unfortunately, the league’s debut was disappointing, and the Army has somehow projected that it ended up losing 38 enlistments on the deal, instead of gaining the thousands it expected, according to internal documents and emails reviewed by Military.com.
As a result, the Army wants some $6 million back from the UFL, according to Military.com. The outlet said that neither the UFL nor Johnson responded to requests for comment.
“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, a spokesperson for Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, told Military.com.
Butler said the Army is working with the UFL to “rebalance” the contract and insists that Johnson “remains a good partner for the Army.”
The failed deal comes as the Army is in the midst of a historic recruiting crisis, Military.com reported. The crisis has been worsened by the service struggling to navigate modern marketing trends that are appealing to a Gen Z audience. It has instead funneled marketing money into to cable TV-style ads and deals with other traditional television broadcasts, such as sports.
Army staff had warned against a partnership with the UFL, because of the high cost and the league’s low viewership, Military.com reported. One senior Army marketing official told the outlet that the deal echoed the National Guard’s disastrous $88 million sponsorship with NASCAR, which reportedly didn’t lead to a single new recruit. Military.com reported that the Johnson/UFL partnership was ultimately endorsed by George, the Army chief of staff.
Both of Johnson’s Army-related posts came in April. One featured a carousel of photos of him with top military leaders, including his “friend” George, “Very cool and honored to announce our @UFL partnership with the @USArmy,” Johnson captioned the photos. Another post shared a video of him touring Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.
The action star and former professional wrestler has otherwise been very busy on Instagram, posting videos of his workouts, promoting his voice work for the upcoming “Moana 2” and touting Wrestlemania and various products in which he has business interests, including his Teramana tequila brand.