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.
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