Did the Army’s $117 Million Rebrand Die After Jonathan Majors’ Arrest?

Questions arose on Monday about the future of the army $117 million A “be all you can be” effort to change your brand, and the service and its partners have done little to answer.

Just weeks after an elaborate rollout ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Army, the service’s marketing office pulled its first two ads, the only ones released so far for the new campaign, from the airwaves. The Army Times first reported on the move, which followed the arrest Saturday of actor Jonathan Majors in New York City on charges of assault, strangulation, and molestation of a 30-year-old woman.

The actor’s attorney vigorously denied the allegations in a statement Sunday, claiming the charges would “soon be dropped” due to video footage and witness testimony — but his representatives did not respond to a new request for comment on Monday.

The Army Marketing Office declined an interview request and did not provide a response to questions sent for this story. DDB, the advertising giant on a contract with more than $4 billion to help market the Army, refused to answer questions and referred them to the Army.

It remains unclear what the direct cost of pulling ads from live broadcasts and the web will be. Television networks often require advertisers to pay up front for the broadcast, and cancellation policies vary by network or medium. Sometimes advertisers are able to get credits for future purchases.

The new “Be all you can be” ads were ubiquitous during the early rounds of March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and Army marketers will be on the ground for the Final Four fan festival in Texas to do the personal tryout. Marketing that goes beyond recruiters turning a table. Sports news site Sportico reported that pre-paid 30-second commercials for this year’s final game cost between $2.2 and $2.3 million, though it’s unclear how many spots the military has purchased.

But if the pause in the current two spots becomes permanent, costs could add up quickly. An unknown but significant portion of the $117 million that Army Secretary Christine Wermut said the new campaign requested went to creative development and production on cinematic advertising.

Complicating matters further, spots have popped in Creed III And Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Shine as a narrator on screen. Majors or his silhouette appears on screen for more than a minute of the 90-second version of one ad, “Overcome Obstacles”. That means removing an actor would require an expensive reshoot or the production of an entirely new round of creative content.

But all is not lost, probably.

Some elements of the nine-figure rebranding, which marketing executives detailed to Army Times on a February visit to their Chicago office, would not require a rebrand even if the service permanently shuts down major videos. The Army will not need to replicate one-time costs such as research groups defining the “Be all you can be” motto, developing brand assets such as logos and fonts, and developing a new career field for a marketing officer.