What Do You Think About Tiger's New Nike Ad?
(Tiger Woods Nike ad article updated with details on latest spoofs of new Nike Tiger ad.)
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Last week, Nike (NKE) - Get NIKE, Inc. Class B Report released a new Tiger Woods ad, narrated with his late father's voice.
By this week, the ad has already sparked considerable controversy -- not to mention rampant parody.
In the ad, the camera focuses on Tiger, who's standing, wearing a Nike vest and Nike cap. The camera slowly pans to Tiger, who remains silent throughout the ad. Then comes the sound of his late father Earl's voice.
Some are calling the ad creepy and bizarre, and others ... well, pretty much everyone is calling the ad creepy and bizarre. Watch it below, and judge for yourself.
Nike's New Tiger Woods Ad |
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It has not taken long for Tiger Wood's new Nike to turn to fodder for the likes of
Saturday Night Live.
Indeed, the
SNL
spot debuted on Saturday night, featuring cast member Kenan Thompson playing Tiger and wearing a Nike hat and Nike vest. Like Tiger in the actual commercial, he remains silent, with camera panning in, as his father's voice begins to speak in the also roughly 30-second video.
But the spoofs and jokes are clearly not ending there.
Howe Burch, executive vice president and managing director at Baltimore-based ad agency TBC said that, personally, he thinks the fact that Tiger would even agree to commercialize his deceased father's voice is quite appalling. "I'm thinking about his poor wife who has to live with the indignity of it all," and watch her husband be "exploited" by a sponsor for commercial gain, Burch said.
Burch has run marketing units at both
Reebok International
and
Fila
TheStreet Recommends
.
From a professional perspective, however, Burch says that Nike has been smart with the ad and is showing its experience inexploiting controversy to its own benefit. Burch thinks that the ad generated intense publicity around the world and imagines that the return on investment for Nike would be "pretty significant."
Nike is "beholden to its shareholders," Burch notes, and is charged with protecting its golf business to the best of its ability, even if it means exploiting an unfortunate situation. "To their credit, they have always consistently embraced controversy. But how Tiger plays this weekend is most important for them."
As far as corporate sponsorships go, some believe that other PGA players may have benefited from Tiger's personal mistteps, but Burch disagreed with this.
"To my knowledge, no golfer has picked up any significant endorsement agreements as a result of his losing his agreements. In fact, I would say his peers have actually suffered because of his indiscretions," citing falling TV ratings for golf tournaments when Tiger took an indefinite leave from the sport. Also, tournaments looking for sponsors struggled to secure them, he said.
Now that you've seen the new Tiger Woods Nike ad, take our poll below to tell us what you think -- and to see what
TheStreet
has to say about it all. Better still, leave a comment, and tell us how you
really
feel.
-- Reported by Andrea Tse in New York
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