Please Weigh In
Nike released this ad featuring Tiger Woods, and it has lit up the internet.
I saw a blog post (can’t find it right now) that was asking for a personal reaction to this clip. Here’s mine:
Brave!
Nike has no real idea how this is really going to be received. I don’t read this to be manipulative or choreographed. It’s not glossy, or slick or smug. It’s presented in stripped-down humility. It’s sad and fractured. It doesn’t resolve. All of those thing strike me as pretty honest. It’s certainly a welcome departure from typical advertising.
How does it strike you?
April 12th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
This is an easy target for a parody and there are already a number of them out there.
I think Nike is trying to have an ad that basically states that we are keeping Tiger on as a sponsor and trying to keep it low key.
There are a number of people Nike sponsors that don’t have squeaky clean images, they probably felt it was a double standard to drop Tiger.
April 12th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
I agree, on both fronts. One the second, I heard that if they didn’t have so much invested in Tiger, then they wouldn’t have taken this step. And that’s true. But I just don’t feel a damage control-ishness about this. Every time I’ve seen that it’s felt desperate. This didn’t.
This just felt deeply sad. It will be largely lampooned, and I’m okay with that. It’s still a corporate entity with an agenda to sell and it’s still their fallen star trying to re-establish himself in public opinion. Not to mention that it’s pretty original. All of that adds up to massive parody potential. But the parodies won’t be able to carry the profound sadness that this achieved.
Let’s note that I didn’t say penitence: I have no idea whether Tiger is actually sorry or not, and wouldn’t trust an ad to tell me that. It’s wise that they didn’t try.