Anything's Possible!

From PGATour.com:

"These Guys Are Good," the longest running and one of the most recognizable tag lines in professional sports marketing, gets a fresh look through a new round of advertising from the PGA TOUR’s longtime agency, GSD&M of Austin, Texas.

It's amazing how long that campaign has lasted considering it was a replacement for "Anything's Possible," the slogan that outlived its purpose when the Tour took Casey Martin to court (and proved not quite everything was possible).

"THE PROFESSOR" campaign will include as many as 10 different TV brand and tune-in ads along with print, radio, internet and retail.

Brand and tune-in ads? Eh, I don't want to know.

The new ads put a spin on the different dimensions of competition in sports. Most sports are largely man vs. man. In golf, however, players not only compete against each other, they face equal and sometimes greater challenges of man vs. nature and man vs. himself. To highlight this idea, the campaign features a mock professor describing fictitious clinical scenarios of various life obstacles that are also realities that both TOUR players and recreational golfers can relate to, such as man's inner demons and the forces of nature.

Hey, is Max Behr sitting in on those rivetting brainstorming sessions?

 “TOUR players are confronted with a new set of obstacles with every shot, with a fine line between success and failure. That creates a great deal of intrigue, drama and excitement among golf and sports fans,” said Ric Clarson, senior vice president of Brand Marketing for the PGA TOUR. “There's a story in every shot, and every shot counts.”

In other words, this is why you should tune into the Thursday telecast from Memphis. You might see a shot you will then get to see over and over again on Sportscenter.

In one of the ads, "Pressure Seeker," the professor describes a person who derives satisfaction from extreme pressure situations. While most people succumb to pressure, TOUR players are the best in the world at coping with it. The professor suggests these type of individuals, even when dealing with extreme situations, can often appear "cool as a cucumber."

"Dendrophobia" has the professor discussing the fear of trees, rare among the general population but very common in even the best golfers. The professor suggests "…those afflicted with dendrophobia seek open grassy spaces.”

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