The Rock‘s deal with the US Army didn’t go as expected.
Last year, the Army signed an $11 million dollar deal with The Rock’s UFL. The goal was to help promote recruitment to the forces, during a time of a historic recruitment crisis in the US.
The deal saw the UFL – formed when the XFL joined up with the USFL – promote recruitment into the Army. They were supposed to help improve the amount of citizens signing up, with The Rock also posting about it on his social media accounts.
However, according to a report by Military.com, the deal was an absolute disaster for the US Army. Despite spending $11 million on the promotion, the report estimates the Army lost out on a projected 38 recruits. It was noted that Army planners use “various metrics” to judge the effectiveness of resources. However, the resources put towards the UFL were seen as a net negative for recruiting by the Army.
More details on the UFL / Army partnership
In addition, they report that The Rock did not hold up his end of their deal. The contract allegedly stated that the WWE legend had to post a certain number of “service-related posts” on social media. Given that The Rock has nearly 400 million Instagram followers, this could have been huge for the Army.
Military.com claim that The Rock was meant to post five posts on his social media. They valued each post at $1 million each, although he only followed through with two out of those five planned.
Col. Dave Butler, a spokesperson for Army Chief of Staff General George, told Military.com in a statement;
“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.”
