Jonathan Majors Scrubbed From March Madness Ads After Actor's Arrest

The arrest of Creed III star Jonathan Majors has led to him being scrubbed from Army adverts during March Madness games.

The New York Police Department said they were called to an apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea district on Saturday after receiving a 911 call from a woman involved in a domestic dispute.

The actor, 33, was subsequently arrested. He appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday charged with two counts of assault in the third degree, aggravated harassment and attempted assault. He was released without bail.

"The victim informed police she was assaulted," a police spokesperson said. The woman was taken to a hospital with complaints of minor head and neck injuries.

Majors' lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, told Newsweek that Majors was the one to call 911 after the incident with the woman, "due to concern for her mental health." She has denied the allegations against her client.

The arrest has given U.S. Army marketers a headache as Majors starred in a number of their adverts set to run in costly commercial slots during the NCAA basketball tournament, known as March Madness. The Army pulled two adverts featuring Majors on Sunday.

Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo, the No. 2 civilian official in the service, said during a media event on Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army's Global Force Symposium: "We have other content as part of the 'Be all you can be' campaign."

He said that the advertisements were pulled due to "an abundance of caution" and said the New York Police Department investigation into the actor "has to play itself out."

Majors is an on-screen narrator for the first two adverts of the campaign which were expected to air during the national college basketball tournament, which is heading towards its finale.

With the Army investing heavily in the prepaid slots, which cost between $2.2-$2.3 million for 30 seconds of air time, per sports news site Sportico, the service needed to move quickly as they could have lost two of those slots following the arrest of Majors.

A spokesperson for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, Laura DeFrancisco, said in a press release that they "repurposed" content that had been produced for two previous advertising campaigns so that the slots were covered.

DeFrancisco said: "We have not lost our media investment at this point. These ads are an interim measure as we monitor the situation and review options going forward."

With taxpayer money bankrolling the campaign, the Army believes that this is an "expedient solution" to the current issue and has confirmed that Majors was not involved in the adverts which have been produced for future campaigns.

Prosecutors claimed Majors slapped a 30-year-old woman, believed to be his girlfriend, in a cab, "causing substantial pain and a laceration behind her ear," and also put his hands on her neck, "causing bruising and substantial pain."

Representatives for the actor maintained his innocence and his lawyers claimed "they are gathering and presenting evidence" for prosecutors, including video footage and witness testimony from the driver to provide to the district attorney "with the expectation that all charges will be dropped imminently."

Majors is next due to appear in court on May 8.

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