Talking to people about Tiger Woods and his acts of infidelity, I get a feeling of disappointment and pessimism from a lot of people. Many seem to feel that "he is a horrible role model and exemplifies why our society is in such moral decay," or "with men like him as role models, it is no surprise that divorce rates are skyrocketing" (a common statement not supported by a statistical analysis of divorce rates.) But, as I notice all the companies that quickly stopped using him in their commercials, I thought to myself, "Man is Good" (if you watch the show Community you will have a better understanding of my use of this quote.) Think about it, marketers do not stand behind immoral men because today's society still has family values and doesn't view these men as good role models. It wasn't a case of "Who cares, he is an athlete." Nope, all men are still held to a moral standard. You fail to represent the ideal family man, you lose millions of dollars. Way to go society, Man is Good!
3 comments:
Good analysis!
I like that!
Man IS Good!!! (Yes, Community is one of my favorite shows)
Tiger's situation is pretty interesting from a brand perspective. Not only to see how this affects his value as a spokesperson, but also brands like Gatorade, Gillette and Accenture ... not to mention Golf ratings overall! My guess is that Tiger will be "out" for a few years and then quietly make a comeback along with authoring a new book about this "learning experience" followed by a whole new slew of media endorsements. But ... he will never be the same kind of investment that he was.
Here's an interesting article though on how the web is making it harder for people to forget things like this:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141074
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