Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s $11 million deal with the United States Army and United Football League through Instagram actually hampered the military’s recruitment efforts, Military.com reported. The partnership sought to recruit new soldiers through his almost 400 million followers on the platform but the project proved to be a failure. Army officials said they are trying to recoup the money paid to Johnson, which was reportedly $6 million, as he did not adhere to the agreed-upon number of posts that he was to make on the social media site. Johnson had originally agreed to make five posts on his page, but only posted two, each worth an estimated $1 million.
Megan Sweeney, a former senior adviser for communications at the US Department of Defense, opined on where things went wrong for the Army. She noted that while the Army thought that they were partnering with The Rock, they just ended up having a partnership with a minor football league in the UFL. The deal ultimately cost the Army millions of dollars and failed to deliver the level of social media exposure they were promised by Johnson’s team. Sweeney predicted that the incident could damage Johnson’s reputation as a brand ambassador if he does not offer further explanation.
Jenn Szekely, president of the global branding and design consultancy, Coley Porter Bell, claimed that some of the issues that they had experienced with the partnership seem to be contractual rather than tactical. If Johnson had not delivered what was promised, that would be considered a failing of the deal and its execution, according to her. Overall, the Army intends to realign the contract with the UFL, although the Rock remains as a good partner.
Earlier this year, Johnson indicated his desire to work on more dramatic films rather than continuing to partake in action blockbusters that helped establish his star status in Hollywood. Meanwhile, the UFL has no comment yet regarding the matter. NME has reached out to Johnson’s representatives for comment
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