Looks like Dwayne Johnson has gotten himself into quite a mess with the US Army. His $11 million deal with the military to boost recruitment hasn’t been as successful as expected, and now the army’s trying to get back $6 million from it. Meanwhile, Jamel Herring, the former WBO super featherweight champion, is having a good laugh at The Rock’s expense!
According to a report from Military.com, the Hollywood star didn’t hold up his side of the deal, which needed him to share an agreed-upon number of social media posts during the United Football League season. To add insult to injury, the army has now declared their partnership a loss, claiming their evaluations projected the resources allocated in the deal could have been used on 38 enlistments.
The army inked the deal with Johnson, a co-owner of the UFL, earlier this year, which indicated army branding will be embellished on player uniforms and during games. Johnson was going to be the spokesperson for the army on social media, promoting the deal. The ‘Moana’ star has over 396 million followers on Instagram, so his posts were valued at $1 million each.
Johnson was supposed to share five posts about the military branch during the UFL’s kickoff season from March to June, but according to the U.S. Army, Johnson failed to do this and shared only two posts on his social media since April.
So, Army officials claimed that they don’t have confidence that any future deals with the UFL will be successful as they try to recoup $6 million of the $11 million. Meanwhile, when this news hit the internet, Jamel Herring took a sly dig at ‘The Rock’ writing, “Should’ve partnered with the Marine Corps (laughing emoji).” That said, what does the military have to say about their failed deal?
Dwayne Johnson worsens Army’s current recruiting crisis
You see, the development came amid a historic recruiting crisis for the army, as they have failed to keep up with the modern ways of marketing. Military.com reported that most of the marketing is aimed at putting money into cable TV ads and promotional deals with traditional TV broadcasts like sports.
Commenting on their move to recoup money from Dwayne Johnson, Laura DeFrancisco, the spokesperson for Army’s marketing branch said, “We are in the process of working with the UFL to determine the final cost.” Reportedly, the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Randy George, ultimately made the deal happen.
So, Col. Dave Butler, a spokesperson for Gen. Randy George, told Military.com, “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.” However, he suggested that they are in the process of rebalancing the contract, and ‘The Rock’ still remains a good partner to the army.
It looks like Dwayne Johnson has landed himself in the middle of a controversy, and it’s yet to be seen whether the army gets their money back. But one thing is clear, Jamal Herring is enjoying the situation to its extent. What are your thoughts on the situation?
