In a humiliating and expensive setback for a military service already suffering through an epic recruiting drought, the US Army has pulled ads of its new “Be All You Can Be” campaign after the arrest of movie actor Jonathan Majors, who serves as the ads’ on-screen narrator. Majors is the star of films including “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.”
The now-shelved television ads, which debuted and have been in heavy rotation during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, are huge-budget, cinematic productions shot on multiple locations and with special effects. The most prominent of the ads, titled “Overcoming Obstacles,” shows Majors walking casually throughout scenes depicting the Army in a variety of combat settings from the Revolutionary War until today.
Majors was arrested on Saturday in New York City and charged with strangulation, assault and harassment of a 30-year-old woman, after police responded to a 911 call from a Chelsea apartment.
According to an NYPD statement:
“The victim informed police she was assaulted. Officers placed the 33-year-old male into custody without incident. The victim sustained minor injuries to her head and neck and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition.”
Citing police sources, TMZ reports that the victim is Majors’ girlfriend and that the couple had an argument in a taxi en route home from a Brooklyn bar, after the girlfriend saw another woman texting Majors. The girlfriend was said to have called police the morning after the incident, and exhibited a laceration behind her ear, and marks and redness on her face.
On Sunday, Priya Chaudhry, an attorney representing Majors, said he “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows” and attributed the incident to the woman having “an emotional crisis.” Chaudhry said she has evidence that includes “video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations.”
The Army’s Enterprise Marketing Office issued a statement saying the Army is “deeply concerned by the allegations…[while Majors] is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.”
Posting its worst recruiting results in a generation, the Army missed its 2022 recruiting goal by a whopping 25%. Army-commissioned surveys found young Americans’ fear of death and mental illness are the biggest reasons they won’t sign up.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 03/27/2023 – 13:20
