The Best of Times and Worst of Times: Nike Golf’s “Earl and Tiger” Ad
I have two takes on Tiger’s first new ad with Nike Golf after all that’s happened over the past six months. It’s a pretty even split for me.
The Best: After I screwed up as a kid and everything cooled down, my dad would always try to look for a lesson to be learned. It was a way to allow me close the book on messing up, dust myself off and move on. It’s powerful to listen to Tiger’s dad doing that same thing for him after he’s gone.
I also think it’s good that Tiger Woods finally looks human. Kind of tired and a little sad. He is no longer the tenacious winning machine of a few years ago in these 30 seconds.
The Worst: Earl is dead. Tiger messed up. Really, really badly. I know…let’s mash those two things together to pull on the ol’ heartstrings so we can keep selling Nike stuff!! I wouldn’t fault anyone who gets that “lawyer chasing after an ambulance” feeling from this ad.
July 1st, 2010 at 10:32 am
The evolution of the Tiger brand has been fascinating – and sometimes heartbreaking – to watch. One of the things to put in the “worst” category for me would be the continued insistence on such a tightly controlled message. It all feels coldly calculated and opportunistic. It’s one of the reasons why I’m finding professional sports harder and harder to enjoy following these days.
Looking forward to more updates here.