Okay, I might be as tired of the non-stop coverage of the Tiger Woods image implosion as much as anyone, but since I wrote my last blog about his tarnished brand, the Woods escapades have become the Energizer bunny for the world’s media. Since my last blog, a whole bevy of beauties (or should I say bevy of birdies, or how about gaggle of groupies?) have stepped up to announce their liaisons with Tiger. At the same time, his sponsors support has been dropping like his 30 foot putts. Gatorade was the first to announce they would be discontinuing their “Tiger Focus” line. A spokesman for the company said this decision was made prior to his domestic problems, but let me translate from corporate-speak into real English: “We don’t know what effect Tiger’s flawed image will have on our product, but the drink was a stiff anyway so this gives us an out, and in the future, if his image rebounds, we don’t want to burn that bridge.” In my opinion, Tiger Focus made no sense in the first place. Gatorade was designed for high intensity sports like football. Golf may be a sport but a typical golfer will hardly break a sweat riding in a golf cart between swings. Actually, the only golfers I know that drank Tiger Focus on the course mixed it with some libations because, after all, the whole purpose of golf is for relaxation. Note to Gatorade: if things work out in the future for Tiger, maybe you should launch a drink aimed specifically for the weekend duffer – how about 90 proof “Tiger Spirits?”
Which brings me to the AP naming Tiger their “Athlete of the Decade.” No doubt he was the best at what he did, but once again, Golf is more about skill than pushing your body to the limits to surpass other athletes at the top of their form. What about Lance Armstrong, who so dominated a grueling sport like bicycle racing, got cancer, beat it and came back to win the Tour de France got injured in an accident and came back to win it again – a record seven times in all? I don’t doubt AP’s motives, but it couldn’t have hurt their media coverage by tapping into one of the hottest media topics.
Which brings me back to Tiger the man vs. Tiger the brand. The difference between Tiger and someone like Gene Simmons of KISS, even if the number of women they slept with ends up being in the same ballpark, is that Simmons never played himself up to be a perfect role model and family man the way Woods did. We expect (almost demand) our Rock Stars behave like, well Rock Stars, but we expect more perfection of our idols. To be fair, no one could ever live up to the squeaky clean image Tiger worked so hard to portray. Kobe Bryant is just one example of someone who had a sexual encounter outside of his marriage (okay it was only one) and was able to work things out to regain his sponsorship dollars. Heck, even Michael Vick is playing in the NFL again and his crimes were serious enough to send him to prison. I believe that Tiger will one day reclaim his sponsorship crown but to do that, he will have to be at least at dedicated in rebuilding his personal life as he was in perfecting his swing.
After all, if it’s one thing the public loves more than a good scandal, it’s redemption.
