The arrest of Jonathan Majors has upended the US Army’s newly launched advertising campaign that was aimed at reviving the service’s struggling recruiting numbers.
Majors, who authorities said was arrested Saturday (25 March) in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment, was the narrator of two ads at the heart of a broader media campaign that kicked off at the start of the NCAA's March Madness college basketball tournament.
Army leaders were hopeful that the popularity of the star of the recently released Creed III and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, would help them reach the youth audience.
In a statement on Sunday (26 March), the Enterprise Marketing Office said that the Army was aware of Majors’s arrest and was "deeply concerned by the allegations.”
It added that while Majors “is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.”
New York City police said the actor was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. “The victim informed police she was assaulted,” a police spokesperson said in a statement.
A lawyer for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, said in a statement on Sunday there was evidence clearing Majors and that the actor “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows.”
The Army ads, titled “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Pushing Tomorrow,” are part of the plan to revive the Army’s “Be All You Can be” motto. They highlighted the history of the Army and some of the many professions that recruits can pursue.
The "Be All You Can Be” slogan dominated its recruiting ads for two decades starting in 1981. A nearly two-minute preview video, made available before the campaign rollout in early March, featured soldiers jumping out of airplanes, working on helicopters, climbing obstacle courses and diving underwater. A voiceover said: “We bring out the best in the people who serve, because America calls for nothing less.”
Additional reporting from agencies
