UPDATED March 29, 5:07 p.m. ET: With the NCAA Final Four games happening this weekend, the Army has decided to put together new recruiting ads in wake of Majors’ arrest.
According to the Associated Press, Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, head of Army marketing, said they were able to recover from the possible $70 million loss in advertising buy by postponing ads or replacing them with pre-existing commercials that were updated. The ads were going to appear on television, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and on digital and physical billboards, including on buses.
“We are absolutely able to utilize a majority of what we have invested,” Fink said. “We think that we’ll have some brand new creative ads in time for the Women’s Final Four on Friday.”
The commercials “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Pushing Tomorrow” featured Majors as the narrator. Fink says they have “an enormous amount” of content and footage to keep the campaign rolling.
“A majority of that content did not contain our main narrator. … So we have a ton of content to go back to, to create basically new commercials new ads, if we need to,” Fink said. “The campaign is full steam ahead.”
See original story from 3/26/2023 below.
The U.S. Army paused Jonathan Majors’ “Be All You Can Be” ad campaign following his arrest for allegedly assaulting a woman.
The public affairs for the U.S. Army Enterprise Marketing Office made a statement on Sunday: “The U.S. Army is aware of the arrest of Jonathan Majors, and we are deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest. While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
The campaign was broadcasted twice before the agency pulled the commercial.
Authorities responded to the situation at 11 a.m. on Saturday. An unidentified woman said the Creed III star attacked her in a domestic dispute. News outlets later reported that the woman is Majors’ girlfriend. She told police that the two got into an argument upon leaving a Brooklyn bar after seeing him text another girl. The two started arguing, resulting in the actor grabbing her arm and wrapping his hands around his neck. After spending the night apart, the woman spoke to officials about his arrest the following day.
Majors’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the woman retracted her statement about Majors physically assaulting her. She continued, and stated that there was video evidence that would prove her client’s innocence.
The Marvel star was charged with misdemeanors, which include two counts of third-degree assault, second-degree aggravated harassment, and lesser charges of attempted third-degree assault. His team has denied the charges.
A representative on Majors’ team told TMZ, “He’s done nothing wrong. We look forward to clearing his name and clearing this up.”
