Pentagon poured money into social media influencers and TV stars to attract Gen Z: report

The Pentagon enlisted entertainers MrBeast, Kelly Clarkson and Guy Fieri last year to help boost flagging enlistment, according to newly revealed documents.

Rolling Stone obtained a Government Accountability report last month showing a 10-percent decline in military favorability among the Generation Z cohort, with only 35 percent holding a favorable view in 2021, compared to 46 percent five years earlier, so the Pentagon targeted them with social media posts to improve their image.

“The military services recognize that young people communicate or receive information increasingly through digital media,” the report said. “According to the Army’s advertising agency, younger generations view the real world through social media discussions, videos, and memes, which influences their values and beliefs.”

The Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group went viral in 2022 with a Christopher Nolan-inspired recruitment video depicting Psyop soldiers fighting on a digital battlefield and E-girls have been getting millions of views with pro-military posts that are possibly overseen by Pentagon operatives.

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The military isn't allowed to use TikTok, the most popular Gen Z social media app, because of its Chinese investors, but a list obtained through a public records request shows the Pentagon-funded programming on Guy’s All-American Road Trip, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Downey’s Dream Cars, The Price Is Right, America’s Got Talent, and The Jennifer Hudson Show under Production Assistance Agreements, or PAAs, as well as content involving YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast.

"We did complete a PAA for the Social Influencer Mr. Beast, but ultimately did not support the production as he did not go to Puerto Rico for the Hurricane relief, so that PAA is cancelled,” a Pentagon official wrote in an email obtained by Rolling Stone.

PAAs are approved under Department of Defense protocols when assistance would be in the best interest of the nation by presenting “a reasonably realistic depiction of the military services and the DoD, including service members, civilian personnel, events, missions, assets, and policies," and when the media is considered informational and likely to contribute to public understanding of the military and "may benefit military service recruiting and retention programs.”

The Pentagon’s Production Assistance Agreements provide military personnel, vehicles, technology, and expert advice for use in film and TV in exchange for the final say in scripts and narratives to portray the military positively, and those agreements were reached in the blockbuster movies Top Gun and Independence Day – although the military pulled out after the latter film's director refused to cut a mention of the secretive military base Area 51 from the film script.

“The United States military was going to support this and supply us with a lot of costumes and airplanes and stuff," said director Roland Emmerich. "Their one demand was that we remove Area 51 from the film, and we didn’t want to do that. So they withdrew their support.”