Tiger Woods made his competitive return to golf today at the Masters. Coincidentally Nike launched a new commercial that features Tiger’s Dad, Earl Woods, talking to his son. The only catch is Earl passed away years ago and most people that follow golf know that. They also know about the very close relationship Tiger had with his father. Nike uses a tool to digitally recreate Earl’s voice as if he if he is having a father-son moment with Tiger. Tiger doesn’t say a word in the 30 second spot – only stands there with a vulnerable look on his face.
I first saw this commercial last night from a link on MSN. At that time, it had just over 300 views. The YouTube video now has over 1,290,000 views. Needless to say plenty of people are talking about this commercial and it’s creating some controversy for using Earl’s voice as many rumors indicate he was unfaithful to Tiger’s mom. Say what you want about this commercial, but it definitely does 3 things:
- Grabs Your Attention – It’s very quite and all you hear is Earl Woods talking and only see a close up of Tiger (of course wearing Nike). It’s also black and white which makes it stand out even more.
- Promotes Discussion – As I mentioned above people are talking about Nike’s choice to use Tiger’s father and if Earl would approve.
- Shows Nike Will Stand By It’s Superstar – Nike is one of the few sponsors that hasn’t abandoned Tiger. And this commercial reiterates they do not plan to do so anytime soon.
Enough writing about the commercial – check out the video below for yourself. What is your opinion on this decision from Nike and Tiger?
Nike is acknowledging the affairs and they are making a judgment. That choice is not to fire Tiger Woods, but to show him acknowledging what was wrong while in their employ.
I don’t know how I feel about all this yet.