Earlier in 2024, the U.S. Army and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson entered into an $11 million sponsorship deal that also had a component similar to an NIL deal, but the Army is now saying that the 52-year-old Johnson did not live up to his end of the agreement.
According to Fortune, part of the Army’s reasoning for inking the deal has been its inability to attract male recruits since 2013. Throughout the last decade-plus, the Army’s enlistment of recruits who identify as male has dropped by 35%.
Due in part to these figures, the Army signed a deal with Johnson’s United Football League, an upstart league that provides players both an alternative and a pathway for the NFL. The agreement stipulated that Johnson was to publish a specific number of service-related posts on his social media accounts, and according to Fortune, this was a significant part of why the Army negotiated the deal. The deal, it seems, was less about the UFL and more about leveraging Johnson’s name, image, and likeness to sell the Army to potential recruits.
However, according to an Army spokesperson, although the Army appears to be dissatisfied with what they received from Johnson, they can’t thoroughly examine the impact on their financial investment until the deal, which includes Army branding on team uniforms and fields, high school clinics, and on-field activations is officially completed.
“We won’t have a clear view of the results of the partnership or impacts to the Army’s financial investment until all marketing elements are complete,” the spokesperson told Fortune. “This partnership allowed the Army to increase awareness and engage with a wider audience for Americans to learn about the possibilities of Army services.”
According to Megan Sweeney, a former senior advisor for communications at the U.S. Department of Defense, the Army didn’t clearly understand what it would get when it made the deal.
“While the Army may have thought they were getting The Rock, they were instead primarily getting a partnership with a minor football league,” Sweeney told the outlet. “The Rock is an investor of the UFL, but it’s not like he’s on the sidelines of every game. As a result, the Army seems to have paid Hollywood-level sponsorship money for minor-league exposure.”Sweeney continued, “In the Army’s defense, they allegedly did not receive the level of social media exposure they were promised by The Rock’s team,” Sweeney said. “It may have cost the Army millions, but this incident will certainly damage Rock’s reputation as a brand ambassador without a further explanation on his end. It’s important to include provisions in brand ambassador contracts that protect both parties in the event one side decides to desert their responsibilities.”
According to documents procured by Military.com, Johnson only made two of the five promised social media posts, which the Army reportedly valued at approximately $1 million a piece, leveraging Johnson’s 396 million Instagram followers to make that valuation.
According to their reporting, Johnson’s partnership with the Army didn’t yield a single recruit, and there is evidence that it may have hurt the Army’s enlistment numbers. The Army reportedly wants to get essentially half of the deal’s value back, $6 million, but it is currently unclear how they arrived at that figure.
According to Laura DeFrancisco, a spokesperson for the Army’s marketing department, “We are in the process of working with the UFL to determine the final cost.”
Inside the military branch, however, there were serious doubts that the partnership would work, as the low reach of the leagues that combined to form the UFL were positioned by staff as hurdles to a payoff and were likened to an $88 million deal the National Guard entered into with NASCAR. That deal, similar to the deal with Johnson’s UFL, also failed to generate a single recruit. Despite these concerns, Gen. Randy George, the Army Chief of Staff, was able to push the deal through, per an email reviewed by Military.com
.George’s spokesperson, Col. Dave Butler, told the outlet that despite the issues with Johnson meeting the social media requirements of the deal, he remains an excellent partner to the military service branch.
“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. But we’re working with the UFL to rebalance the contract. The Rock remains a good partner to the Army.”