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The Army Bet $11M on The Rock and UFL Ginning Up Enlistments. It May Have Actually Hurt Recruiting Efforts
www.military.com ^ | JULY 30, 2024 | Steve Beynon

Posted on 07/31/2024 6:01:01 AM PDT by Red Badger

The Army is seemingly having buyer's remorse after an $11 million marketing deal with the United Football League and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

The high-dollar, high-profile deal likely didn't lead to a single new Army recruit and may possibly have had a negative impact on finding new enlistments, internal documents and emails reviewed by Military.com show. The service may even seek to get some of its money back.

The Army inked the deal earlier this year with the UFL, the upstart minor league alternative to the NFL that had an inaugural season from March through June with a disappointing debut. More importantly, the deal included Johnson, a global superstar and owner of the league, who was supposed to serve as a pseudo brand ambassador for the Army -- though the service said he did not fulfill his end of the bargain to publish a specific number of service-related posts on his social media accounts.

The news comes as the Army is in the midst of a historic recruiting crisis that has been partially worsened by the service struggling to navigate modern marketing trends. Much of its efforts are still geared toward funneling money into cable TV-style ads and marketing deals with other traditional television broadcasts, such as sports, even as Gen Z's media diet has left most of those old-school mediums behind.

The UFL deal was so catastrophic, it led to a projected loss of 38 enlistments, an internal review of the plan shows. Army planners use various metrics to judge whether time and money could be better spent in other efforts, and the effort and resources spent on the UFL were seen by the service as a net negative for recruiting.

(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; Sports; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS:
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To: central_va

It is all good
————-
Unfortunately, Our military needs a black eye or two to on a field of battle to wake up. A sound defeat by China, Russia, Iran, NK, etc…is the only way to correct our declining military….until then the dark forces will continue their destruction.

It’s coming.


21 posted on 07/31/2024 6:52:19 AM PDT by delta7
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To: delta7

I am an isolationist. Let the Marines and the Navy keep our oceans safe and let the army go. They can’t even defend our ONE border.


22 posted on 07/31/2024 6:59:34 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Red Badger
All of the military branches are heading into the outhouse. These clips from the Navy are beyond sad: Huge Changes to Navy Boot Camp in 2024.

Warrior ethos...that's going clear out the window.

23 posted on 07/31/2024 7:04:04 AM PDT by voicereason (When a bartender can join Congress and become a millionaire...there’s a problem.)
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To: voicereason

Those recruits are FAT!

Good for the Navy because it floats................


24 posted on 07/31/2024 7:14:24 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger
Our Army need the right movies.

25 posted on 07/31/2024 7:16:19 AM PDT by budj (Combat vet, second of three generations.)
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To: Red Badger

Part of the allure of the deal was Johnson’s social media reach and an agreement that he would tout the Army. A titan on social media, Johnson has 396 million followers on Instagram. The Army valued each social media post at $1 million, service documents show, and it was expecting five of them. But Johnson did not fulfill his end of the deal — making only two of the five social media posts, Army documents show.


From the article.

what did the two posted look like?


26 posted on 07/31/2024 7:19:46 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Red Badger

One senior Army marketing official, in an interview with Military.com, said the deal echoed the National Guard’s $88 million NASCAR sponsorship that reportedly didn’t lead to a single new soldier joining the ranks. But the UFL partnership was ultimately pushed through directly by Gen. Randy George, the Army chief of staff, according to an email between him and senior staff reviewed by Military.com.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_George


27 posted on 07/31/2024 7:22:14 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Red Badger

But part of the Army’s marketing strategy is also reaching parents and older people who may be in a potential recruit’s orbit, given young Americans spend much of their viewing time on TikTok, which the Pentagon is barred from advertising on because of concerns on Capitol Hill that the platform’s parent company can give sensitive user data to the Chinese government.


older people who may be in a potential recruit’s orbit,


28 posted on 07/31/2024 7:24:16 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Red Badger

I joined the Army during the “Be all you can be” campaign. It was a good recruiting tool but I joined simply because it was cool and wanted to go to Germany.


29 posted on 07/31/2024 8:00:19 AM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Red Badger

Tell the young men that they will be made tough and elite and turned into warriors, sharing the life of manly men and wearing uniforms that reflect that edgy and dangerous specialness and they will enlist.

Making it just another federal job where you and your sister or girlfriend are interchangeable and there is no sense of male elitism, where women can now pass all the schools and wear all the badges and berets and you are just a part of the same civilian group you were before except that you can be sent to war and have to depend on those people, then why bother.


30 posted on 07/31/2024 9:32:49 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Dutch Boy
Until the military is purged of marxists, trannies and other assorted freaks, few will want to join and then ones that do are often the wrong type.


31 posted on 07/31/2024 9:38:06 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: ansel12
Making it just another federal job where you and your sister or girlfriend are interchangeable and there is no sense of male elitism, where women can now pass all the schools and wear all the badges and berets and you are just a part of the same civilian group you were before except that you can be sent to war and have to depend on those people, then why bother.

Look at post #31

32 posted on 07/31/2024 9:38:54 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

The place to start is to roll it back to when the military had it’s war fighting and close war support side separate from the civilian like jobs at the center of the base, the bands, the legal, medical, dental, financial, recreational and entertainment, foreign language school instructors, people who would never see field living, two separate worlds that didn’t mix.

If that group was chosen because they joined to be in the band, or to spend their lives sitting at a desk in the Air Force flying drones then have them pass basic training and then send them to their indoor world.


33 posted on 07/31/2024 9:54:13 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Red Badger

The military didn’t run a RuPaul recruitment video??? Obviously they need more faggots and tranny child groomers to boost recruitment.


34 posted on 07/31/2024 10:03:47 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: delta7

“It’s coming.”

Kasserine Pass or Task Force Smith all over again.


35 posted on 08/01/2024 3:06:51 AM PDT by rxh4n1 ( )
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