The U.S. Army halted a multi-million dollar ad campaign Sunday after its on-screen narrator was arrested for alleged assault and strangulation, officials said, according to The Military Times.
Jonathan Majors was slated to be the narrator for Army’s commercials about the freshly minted slogan, “Be All You Can Be,” The Military Times reported. On Saturday, authorities arrested Majors on charges of assault, strangulation and harassment, prompting military officials to pause the new marketing campaign.
“The U.S. Army is aware of the arrest of Jonathan Majors and we are deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest,” Laura DeFrancisco, spokesperson for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, told Military Times. “While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.”
The acclaimed actor allegedly assaulted an unnamed woman in a New York City residence in the Chelsea neighborhood. NYPD said the woman suffered head and neck injuries, and suspect the alleged abuse arose from a “domestic dispute,” according to The Military Times.
“We are quickly gathering and presenting evidence to the District Attorney with the expectation that all charges will be dropped imminently,” Majors’ criminal defense lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, wrote in a statement to Army Times.(RELATED: Massachusetts Man Allegedly Shot Wife, 12-Year-Old Son To Death Before Committing Suicide)
In a statement in Buzzfeed News, Chaudhry said Majors is “completely innocent and is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows.” Chaudhry also claimed the woman “was having an emotional crisis, for which she was taken to a hospital yesterday.”
While the exact financial toll of the paused campaign remains unclear, the average cost of a 30-second commercial featured in the March Madness final is estimated at $2,200,000, according to Sportico.