Nobody expected Tiger Woods and the business partners and sponsors who stood beside him during his much-publicized off-course problems to never return to the business of making money -- and the first ad unveiled for The Masters proved Nike and Woods were not above addressing the issue directly in order to capitalize.
The ad uses the voice of Woods' late father to ask the golfer questions as he looks directly into the camera.
It's certainly a striking and well-constructed commercial, and it's already generating both positive and negative reaction -- a goal for any sports marketer.
What's troubling, though, is that while Woods professes to want to put the off-course character/marital issues behind him and change, we get a commercial (controlled by him and his handlers) that takes advantage of the issue in a manner that only he can. It almost seems like an in-your-face swing at those who've questioned him, again putting him clearly in charge.
Granted, any commercial that was just golf-related would draw criticism as avoiding the issue, but this approach almost seems too strong.
No comments:
Post a Comment