U.S. Army's Marketing Deal With The Rock Was A Disaster
Did The Rock just play the U.S. Army?
'According to new internal documents, the Army is quite furious that an $11 million marketing partnership with the famed actor and former wrestler alongside his United Football League was an absolute disaster - including leading to ZERO new recruits.
You mean to tell me ELEVEN MILLION dollars didn't lead to a single recruit? Hell, I could do better than that with a bottle of whiskey and a country music playlist on a Saturday night.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stands in ring at the Wells Fargo Center on April 8, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by WWE/Getty Images)
THE ROCK DIDN'T FOLLOW THROUGH ON HIS PART
The Army inked the deal earlier this year with the UFL, the upstart minor league alternative to the NFL that had an inaugural season from March through June with a disappointing debut. More importantly, the deal included Johnson, a global superstar and owner of the league, who was supposed to serve as a pseudo brand ambassador for the Army -- though the service said he did not fulfill his end of the bargain to publish a specific number of service-related posts on his social media accounts. - Military.com
First off, I understand that the Army is having its share of difficulties on the home front these days because the Hate America crowd is running rampant and doesn't want the Army even to be at music festivals like SXSW anymore, but who thought teaming up with the UFL would be a good idea? The League was going to be a failure from the start - even The Rock himself wasn't promoting it, which I guess is the overall point because he didn't fulfill his contractual agreements either with the Army.
According to Military.com, The Rock was supposed to post 5 different Army-related posts promoting the military branch on his Instagram account that has more than 360 MILLION followers. Within their $11 million deal, the Army concluded that each post would be worth the equivalent of $1 million in advertising spending simply because of The Rock's popularity and social media reach.
Representatives for The Rock have not responded to requests regarding the Military.com story.
From the get-go, the partnership was criticized by some within the Army who believed that the $11 million price tag was simply too high with a return rate not nearly worth the value. With Gen Z and millennials moving away from traditional broadcast platforms, the fact is that the intended audience wasn't there for the high price. The military would do much better focusing their recruitment efforts on platforms like TikTok - however they are banned from doing so due to Congress's concerns of the Chinese government's influence on the platform.
So, the Army felt that combining The Rock's UFL brand along with his personal massive social reach would work. But, apparently, The Rock didn't have enough time to thank or promote the military, as he only posted ONE of his FIVE obligatory Instagram posts. It's unclear exactly why he didn't fulfill the other requests, maybe he was too busy denying he's running for President.
For now, the U.S. Army is working on a way to recoup some of the financial burden - either through a breach of contract lawsuit or some sort of financial agreement, but the damage may have already been done as an internal review showed that the partnership actually led to a loss of 38 recruits and was seen as a ‘net negative for the Army’s recruiting process.'
One thing's for certain, if The Rock thinks slighting the U.S. Army is going to help any future potential political opportunities, he has another thing coming.