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    Army Pulls Recruiting Commercials After Jonathan Majors’ Arrest

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1545 Views
    Jonathan Majors arrives at the American Black Film Festival Honors on March 5, 2023, at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. Majors was arrested Saturday, March 25, in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment after a domestic dispute, authorities said. Representatives for Majors said in a statement to The Associated Press that "he has done nothing wrong." (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

    By Lolita C. Baldor

    WASHINGTON (AP) --

    The arrest of actor Jonathan Majors has upended the Army's newly launched advertising campaign that was aimed at reviving the service's struggling recruiting numbers.

    Majors, who authorities said was arrested Saturday 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 Sunday, the Army's Enterprise Marketing Office said that the Army was aware of Majors' 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 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."

    In the Army's worst recruiting year in recent history, the service fell 25% short of its goal to enlist 60,000 recruits in 2022. The new ads were a key element in the Army's drive to find creative new ways to attract recruits and ensure that the service has the troops it needs to help defend the nation.

    Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army has set a difficult goal for this year: aiming to bring in 65,000 recruits, which would be 20,000 more than in 2022.

    Category:News
    Tags:Be All You Can BeJonathan MajorsU.S. Army



    Review: Rachel Morrison Makes Feature Directorial Debut With “The Fire Inside”

    Monday, December 23, 2024

    "The Fire Inside," about boxer Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, is not your standard inspirational sports drama, even if it feels like it for the first half of the movie.

    There's the hopeless dream, the difficult home life, the blighted community, the devoted coach, the training montages, the setbacks and, against all odds, the win. We've seen this kind of story before, you might think, and you'd be right. But then the movie pulls the rug out from under you: The victory is not the end. "The Fire Inside," directed by Rachel Morrison and written by Barry Jenkins, is as much about what happens after the win. It's not always pretty or inspirational, but it is truthful, and important.

    Sports dramas can be just as cliche as fairy tales, with the gold medal and beautiful wedding presented as a happy ending. We buy into it time and time again for obvious reasons, but the idea of a happy ending at all, or even an ending, is almost exclusively for the audience. We walk away content that someone has found true love or achieved that impossible goal after all that work. For the subject, however, it's a different proposition; Life, and all its mundanities, disappointments and hardships, continues after all. And in the world of sports, that high moment often comes so young that it might be easy to look at the rest of the journey as a disappointing comedown.

    Claressa Shields, played by Ryan Destiny in the film, was only 17 when she went to the 2012 London Olympics. Everything was stacked against her, including the statistics: No American woman had ever won an Olympic gold medal in the sport before. Her opponents had years on her. She was still navigating high school in Flint, Michigan, and things on the home front were volatile and lacking. Food was sometimes scarce... Read More

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