Jonathan Majors in the since-scrubbed Overcoming Obstacles ad.
Army Marketing Bureau
Jonathan Majors’ ad campaign for the US Army, which was shelved after his arrest on Saturday for allegedly assaulting a woman during a domestic dispute and has since been deleted from the organization’s official channels, was no ordinary succession of commercials. The two spots, filmed in January in the Southern California region, were critical parts of a much larger, ongoing rebranding effort for the armed services, which is hosting its Gen Z recruiting message in the years following the Afghan retreat.
In the days leading up to Majors’ arrests (in a statement, the Army said it was “deeply concerned by the allegations”), had spoken to the campaign’s architects about their introduction: Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, head of Army Enterprise Marketing — Equivalent to a corporate chief marketing officer — as well as John Carstens, executive creator director of Team DDB, his advertising firm. Both discussed why Majors, whose defense attorney has said he is “completely innocent,” is their ideal frontman. According to Carstens, he met the requirements of their creative brief, which called for a Gen Z mentorship character, “someone who could be a big brother or big sister to the young adult making that decision,” who has an “appropriate physical… Constitution and Moral Presence to pull the script through.
Carstens himself recalled adding Majors’ name into the mix after noting his appearance on HBO’s since-cancelled Lovecraft Country. “There’s something about him, there’s a certain seriousness about him. I just thought he was a really interesting screen presence on that show.” The executive saw the actor as a rising star, not a celebrity pitchman, and stated that Majors had no intention of being a permanent face for the Army. “He’s gotten a lot more famous lately, in the months since [the commercials were shot], coming out with Ant Man and Creed. Nobody knew about it [Sundance hit] Magazine Dreams. This army campaign is right in the middle of that fast-paced sequence.” (Carstens and Team DDB declined to comment further in light of the Majors arrests.)
For Fink, a plus for majors was that the actor had previously spoken openly about the formative influence of his relatives’ lives in the Bundeswehr. (The actor didn’t serve in the military himself.) “Anytime you can find someone with a connection back to military service, that’s a bonus.” During the press tour for his 2022 Korean War film Devotion, Majors described how personal it is project, as his paternal grandfather was a veteran of the conflict.
“Growing up, many of my peers didn’t see military service as a viable option for their future,” Majors said in a statement about his work on the army campaign, which was shown to THR before his arrest. “I have seen firsthand what a military career can do for an individual, thanks to the legacy of service in my family, and I am passionate about helping to bring those opportunities to today’s youth. No matter who you are or where you’re from, the Army empowers you to become the best version of yourself. I have always relied on this idea to reach my full potential at all times.”
In the past, high profile actors such as Kirk Douglas, Harry Belafonte, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman have served in the US military. During the post-draft era, there were comparatively few prominent Hollywood performers with such experience. Adam Driver is a notable exception, having joined the Marine Corps after the September 11 attacks; prior to deployment in Iraq, he was medically discharged from service.
The two major commercials, filmed over six days and directed by Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) with music by composer Rob Simonsen (Stranger Things), sought what Carsten and Fink called the production vision of “epic realism”. labeled, inspired by films like 1917, Dunkerque and Saving Private Ryan. They follow the army through its history, with majors speaking to the viewer while vignettes unfold in, for example, the Panama Canal zone. Some scenes were filmed at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. Malibu advocated the invasion of Normandy.
The cost of the glossy commercials was not disclosed. Carsten noted that the ability to rely on the organization’s own resources, including equipment and locations, reduced the budget.
The army has to hire more than 100,000 new recruits every year. “When young people close their eyes today, they see a distant star, which is revered but not relevant, appreciated but not understood,” explained Fink. “What is important for youth is community, connection, passion and determination. We don’t get much credit for that. So as a brand, that’s not good.” He added, “That’s the marketing challenge.”
Carstens commented on the new campaign: “Patriotism is not the point. Patriotism doesn’t really play with our Gen Z audience. Different people have different interpretations of it. So saluting the flag doesn’t go down in history and that’s a reason to serve in the army. It has to be something people are thinking about now that they are interested in – protecting and defending Americans, as opposed to anyone’s idea of what America is or should be. So we wanted to find examples to make an argument relevant to what’s in it for me in the future, what I want, and the dent in the universe I want to make.”
The majors spots were in high-visibility rotation, including during the ongoing NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. They would also have aired during the championship game. Now the army has put them on hold.