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In today’s LA Times article about Tiger, I was quoted by Diane Pucin.   I want to augment the quote and lend some editorial.  You’ll see several posts on this subjects in my blog.  To get the full picture of my perspective, I suggest you read them all.

Here is my quote and it is also hypertext to the article.

Dan Beeman, founder of the Woodland Hills-based Sponsorship Insights Group, a global networking and sponsorship agency, said Woods’ unwillingness to take control of the situation “smacks of selfishness.”

“Tiger should have come out by now and released all his sponsors from their obligations and publicly rededicated himself to working for his foundation,” Beeman said. “Instead he and his representatives are letting his sponsors hang out there and fall like dominoes, one by one.”

The dominoes falling and his silence  is only extending the story.  Tiger is going through a self-inflicted ordeal that none of us can relate to as no sports figure has ever has the number of endorsements, is as widely recognized or has anywhere near the income generated by them.

People have and do cheat, but no cheating  has ever been so widely covered or been so serial in its nature.  Part of the incomprehensible irony which has mystified his fans is that golf has many metaphors about life through its’ rules of self-regulation, honesty and tradition.  So, sponsors jumped on the bandwagon of the best  golfer and capitalized on those attributes.  That is why so many feel cheated.  Cheating is not allowed in golf.

Almost all of his sponsors focused on his relentless drive for perfection and personal discipline which helped him achieve success.  He allowed sponsors to market himself that way knowing there was a natural, logical extension from his golf success to his personal success.  This was all reinforced by his public image – a lovely wife and two adorable children.  Sponsors hoped that same leap would be made by consumers as it related to their brand.  This image was reinforced by an apparently wholesome family life.  The extension of perceived perfection to his personal life and brands was natural.  By accepting the endorsements, he perpetuated that image.

Now we know that on field/court/course success should not be extended to assumptions of ones moral character or integrity.  We keep learning the hard way.  We want to look up to these athletes because they do physical things we can’t.

As I said in the article, he needs to get in front of it, show genuine remorse, accept responsibility and do something about it.  A good first step would be to release sponsors from their obligations.  This will end the domino effect of  sponsors, one at a time, spinning their way out of their connection with him by “respecting his privacy.”

The “selfishness” I spoke of in the article was not of Tiger (though, through his duplicity, he obviously was), but his agent who had the audacity to say he was disappointed in Accenture for dropping him.  His agent should have apologized to Accenture for tarnishing their image and allowing them to run their marketing around a campaign that now smacks of a sad irony – “Go ahead, be a Tiger.”  Yikes!

Accenture, and the others, should find causes/properties to sponsor that aim to do good, not individuals.  Tiger should endorse that.   That would stop the dominoes from continuing to fall and buy him some privacy, respect and the opportunity to start repairing himself and his image.  As we keep being reminded, humans are not perfect and will make mistakes, but causes aim for good and usually do it.

Thoughts?

Tags: Advertising, campaign, Public Relations, Sponsorships, Sports, sports marketing, Strategy, tiger