So Tiger Woods didn’t win the Masters Tournament over the weekend. Probably for the best really, otherwise, just as in Nike’s most recent ad, his father might have emerged from the grave and told us that ‘equal fourth place is as good as last place, son’.
Nike’s recent marketing stunt shows Woods staring silently and somberly at the camera, as his late father Earl speaks to him in voiceover: “Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was; I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?”
And for those that missed it the quote was pieced together from interviews his father had given prior to his death.
Leading advertising companies are calling the commercial “genius”, establishing the sporting goods company’s loyalty to the billion dollar sportsman through good times and bad. In some respects good on Nike, but what a crass, creepy and quite shameless way to do it.
Come on Nike, would Woods Snr really have said that? Surely, it would have been less about what his feelings are and more like a father/son bollocking. Perhaps something along the lines of:
‘Tiger, you’re a bloody idiot, son. Over a dozen women? Your wife Erin is a good sort and a damn fine woman, plus she’s the mother of your two kids. You’re a dickhead if you thought you weren’t going to get caught. Keep it in your pants and get back to the game.’
At a press conference in Augusta, Georgia last week Woods commented about his ongoing partnership with Nike: “Going forward I hope I can prove to companies that I am a worthy investment. That I can help their company, help their company grow and represent them well.”
Let’s hope Woods is proving first and foremost “a worthy investment” to his wife and family and does a better job in the future of “representing them well”.
For a sportsman that certainly isn’t short of a penny to seek redemption on the world stage via a Nike ad that includes your dead father, seems yet again, self-serving and disrespectful.
The next time Tiger appears in a Nike ad he should look shamed-face at the camera and say: ‘Just don’t do it.’
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@Drag0nista Can't see it bring re l 'ship Cos lots of Ruddites don't back gay marriage (Joel, Bowen) and lot of Gillardians do.
KRudd gives marriage equality folk hope, but odds still against it passing on June 6. http://t.co/QmQffMkSvH
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