Way To Go Swoosh: Tiger Is Back…To Being Controversial

I normally get the Nike marketing approach of all attention is good attention and we're the brand with an edge, yada, yada.  But this Tweeted/Facebook posted photo of Tiger under the guise of "winning takes care of everything" could become a standard marketing school example of how to screw up a really good thing.

Let's review: Nike's athletes of late haven't exactly been setting the world on fire in the class, integrity, coolness or law-abiding department. Actually, that's being kind.

Their biggest star, Tiger Woods, wasn't exactly served well by this April 2010 Nike ad while not having a very good run from 2009-2011. Yet now he may be playing as well as he ever has. Tiger is golfing with the president. Woods has a popular new girlfriend and his marketing mojo is back with an anticipated new EA game version and supported by one of the best commercials you'll ever see next to a beloved elder statesman of the game. Most important in the discussion, Tiger seems destined to contend for his fifth Masters barring an unlucky tee time draw or health issue.

Even agent Mark Steinberg says blue chip companies are calling again (according to Steiny's ex-Keeler, Darren Rovell).  As Doug Ferguson notes in this column, Tiger is back to his winning ways in every way imaginable.

So what does Nike do?

They send out a missive suggesting that winning makes up for any kind of behavior, which, as the Daily Show Tweet observed, may be the truth. But was this really the time to roll out something to remind people of Tiger's scandal?

It appears Nike's brilliance was not well received by the ad industry gurus, according to this unbylined AP story.

Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates in New York, said the ad signals that Nike believes it is time Woods – who in addition to his new No. 1 ranking is now in a much-touted relationship with Olympic ski champion Lindsey Vonn – is back in the spotlight.

''They're looking at this and saying, 'Time has passed, he's winning again, it's time to turn up the volume on our association,' " he said. ''But it's risky when you associate with a celebrity only based on winning or losing. Consumers care about how you play the game: both the actual game and the game of life.''

Marketing consultant Laura Ries was more positive on the move.

''The reality is what he said is true,'' Ries said. ''Whether or not they should have said it in an ad is another story.''

Just this next paragraph alone should prove why the move by Nike made a huge blunder. Lynn Zinser in a New York Times On Par writes:

If anyone should know winning doesn’t take care of everything, it’s Nike, which has had to inch away from several famous endorsers who have proved that all too painfully. There was the hasty retreat from Armstrong as he was outed as a performance enhancing drug kingpin. There was the scrubbing of Joe Paterno’s name off a child care center at the Nike campus after it became stained by his (arguable) enabling of the pedophile former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Oscar Pistorius gunning down his girlfriend in his bathroom was the latest eye-popping news to make Nike blanch: it had run an ad with Pistorius featuring the quotation “I am the bullet in the chamber.”

Nike issued a statement spinning their move.

"Tiger has always said he competes to win,” Nike spokesman Beth Gast said in a statement. “When asked about his goals such as getting back to No. 1, he has said consistently winning is the way to get there. The statement references that sentiment and is a salute to his athletic performance.”

Nice try.