Czar Nicholas II of Russia
Car Czar Consulting says: US to Tiger: Shut up and swing!
Nike, Tiger: Marriage of Slime, Scandal
One day before Woods returned to golf for the first round of the Masters, he and Nike have combined on a new TV commercial, and let me give you a one-word review of it:
Disgusting. Woods is using his dead father to bail him out of his image problem. Nike has dropped to a new low, too.
How dumb do Woods and Nike think we are? They are banking — and that’s the exact right word — on the idea that we will fall for their act again.
In the commercial we hear words spoken by Earl Woods:
“Tiger, I am more prone to being inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything?”
Meanwhile, Woods stands there staring at the screen in a close-up in black and white, blinking.
We’re supposed to think that Woods’ father is scolding him for his recent scandal. The implication is that his father would be “inquisitive,” not judgmental.
The defense for Woods throughout the revelations of all his girlfriends, from porn stars to pancake waitresses, is that he didn’t create that image. The marketers did. The media did.
The truth is, we are all in on this together. Whoever the seller is, someone has to be the buyer, too. We were all duped before somehow by the image that’s been created about Woods.
See, it’s not just about Woods. It’s about us, too. It’s about how we want to turn great athletes into superheroes. We want to believe, so we participate in the illusion.
But companies like Nike take advantage of our need to admire. This commercial is the perfect low-class example, proof of a mean-spirited campaign to treat us like fools again. Nike and Woods are taking the sympathy factor of a dead father to capitalize and profit from Woods’ scandal.
They are trying to build him up again out of nothing, repackage him. And it was a false packaging in the first place. Remember when you believed in Tiger? Well, here it is, believe again. All you have to do is close your eyes and try.
How slimy Nike is. This marketing behemoth is way too important in our lives.
Take a look at this commercial. Woods and Nike were in on this together. If Woods didn’t want it to happen, didn’t want his father used in this way, then he could have stopped it.
Nike did not run a commercial with Earl Woods’ words without running it by Tiger first.
It’s such a good and perfect look at the seed of the trouble.
Nike says it made this commercial to show support for Woods. Uh, no. It wanted to make money from the scandal. From all the hard feelings and personal pain, Nike saw opportunity.
On Monday, Woods sat and talked to the media in Augusta, trying to rebuild the image. I’ll admit I was duped. I was.
I always thought it was none of our business which consenting adults Woods had sex with. He did not owe the public an apology for his sex life.
Yes, he’s a public figure, but our business does not extend into his bedroom. Or, in Woods’ case, into the backseat of his car.
Or God knows where else.
When he gave his formal apology weeks ago, that was the first time he had done anything to the public. When he decided he owed an apology, it had to be real and honest.
Instead, it was fake and robotic. And a fake apology is an insult.
The only time he showed real emotion was when he scolded the media, which uncovered the true Tiger and ruined the fake one.
He came back Monday and tried again, this time taking questions. He talked about how poorly he had behaved, how much therapy had helped him. Since then, he has been signing autographs and smiling and trying to make up for it.
Well, I thought that’s what he was doing, a humbled hero. But this commercial makes it fake again.
It has all been choreographed, hasn’t it? It is all for show, for image.
So Woods is going to save an endorsement deal. That’s what these past few days were about.
Apparently, that’s all that Woods is about.
Maybe he didn’t sway from his principles. Maybe there was nothing there in the first place. The image comes from dust.
But it sure did pay off.
He’s a great golfer, and fun to watch. Let’s just stick with that. It’s real.
But anything else?
Not buying.
