Creed III fame Jonathan Majors was recently approached for the Army Ads for recruits to air during the NCAA’s Final Four basketball games for the upcoming weekend. However, all the ads featuring the actor are now scrubbed owing to the arrest of Majors in NYC. The actor was arrested for the allegation of assault and harassment. The US Army has allocated a massive fund of $117 million for ads which would be displayed at the games. Now they have to refashion the ads devoid of the lead narrator.
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The Army chiefs were eagerly looking forward to the ads featuring Avengers: The Kang Dynasty actor. It was part of the new campaign to revive the struggling recruiting numbers and inspire more enlisting than the previous year. Army marketing team wanted to capitalize on Majors’ popularity with the massive success of Creed III and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The ads are featured to improve the reach to the young audience.
Jonathan Majors Controversy
Majors was arrested last week in New York. The charges against him include strangulation, assault, and harassment. New York City police stated that the actor was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. As per authorities reports, the woman was taken to the hospital with minor injuries to her head and neck. The lawyer for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, has pleaded that there is evidence clearing Majors and said Majors “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows.”
Criminal defense lawyer Priya Chaudhry said on Sunday morning,
“We are quickly gathering and presenting evidence to the District Attorney with the expectation that all charges will be dropped imminently.”
Impact on Be All You Can Be campaign
The two Army ads promoting Be All You Can Be featuring Jonathan Majors as an on-screen narrator have been pulled on Sunday. The Army does not want to get involved in the controversy about Majors. Hence, they have decided to go ahead with the remaining ads. The $117 million Be All You Can Be ad campaign will be telecasted on social media, television, and digital and physical billboards.
The Army’s Enterprise Marketing Office, which is leading the new campaign, said in 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.”
“We recently released two ads in which Mr. Majors appears. While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.”
Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, head of Army marketing told The Associated Press that a majority of content does not contain the main narrator, hence they have plenty of content to go back to. He added that they have enough material to create new commercials if needed and the campaign is full steam ahead.
Source- Deadline
