How porn star mistresses and flagrant adultery destroyed America’s biggest sports icon – virtually overnight.
If the Tiger Woods Brand as we knew it isn’t dead, it is certainly in intensive care with brain damage. And right now the doctors aren’t sure if the patient will ever be the same again.
It happened almost instantaneously in historical terms: a few days or a week at the most.
One afternoon Tiger Woods was someone we respected and admired. A day later we were wondering how bad things were. Was it a single fling, a moment’s temptation and bad judgement that led to the 2am dust-up with his lovely wife?
By the end of the week we knew the score and were disgusted as an unceasing lineup of porn stars, bar girls and sluts revealed Tiger’s secret life and how he betrayed his wife and children for years.
And, he betrayed all of us who rejoiced in his success because we thought he was one of the few genuine good guys.
When a man or a woman decides to break a promise, they sacrifice their moral code, their integrity. Breaking your vows to a spouse is a decision, not an irrational act. To paraphrase J.R. Ewing, “Once you lose your integrity, the rest is easy.” … commenter on CNN’s Cafferty File
Part of my soul loved Tiger because his success was real: not manufactured stardom like the latest slinky little girl wrapped in barbed wire to divert attention from a mediocre voice. Tiger’s achievements were real: he won fair and square against the best golfers in the world to get where he is. After his back problems he returned through hard work and the power of his will.
Tiger was proof that dedicated parents, hard work, talent and ambition could elevate an otherwise ordinary person into the realm of superstar. His face was evidence that colour and race didn’t have to mean anything anymore. He was Obama before there was Obama – even if he did marry a white girl.
According to Forbes, Woods is already a billionaire. Corporations crawled on their knees to be associated with the Tiger Woods brand. Kings, movie stars and the rich and famous wanted to be seen with him. His wedding in Barbados was the stuff of legend.
While Tiger might still have his billion dollars and his major corporate sponsors like Gatorade, Gillette and Pepsi (who all rallied ’round the flag despite earlier rumours that they were running for the 19th hole), the damage has been done.
“According to Nielsen, television ads featuring Woods have disappeared from prime-time broadcast TV and many cable channels.” … CNN
Truth is, the Tiger Woods Brand has been severely mauled. Severely – because the brand was built as much upon Tiger’s good guy image as his golfing talent. The real test will be two years from now when we count how many of the major sponsors are still around.
I think that Tiger Wood’s public is less forgiving of this type of behaviour than in the past and less forgiving than if Woods was, for instance, a rock star who already had a wild child reputation.
It’s all about money and if the Tiger Woods Brand doesn’t resonate any longer with his public, then Pepsi and the rest will drop him faster than you can say “drunken PGA tour groupie”.
Lessons for Barbados
1. If your brand is built upon an image, you’d best remember to live up to that image all the time.
2. The public hates a phony, and is less likely to forgive failures if they believe they were deceived all along when they invested their loyalty into the brand.
3. The brand can be damaged bit by bit by small things over a lengthy period, but just one major incident can do unbelievable damage overnight (for instance like Natalie Holloway’s disappearance did to the Aruba brand).
Can our readers think of any other lessons for Barbados to come out of the Tiger Woods scandal?
There was only one Jesus Christ.
Tiger Woods is just another human being with human weaknesses.
One Brand fails another will replace.
Next best Brand is Lewis Hamilton.
You should understand something about endorsements. Most of them can be terminated for breach of morals or ethics. The severity of the ethics clause is usually dependent on the status of the individual. The bigger the name the more lenient and specific the clause. Tiger’s endorsement contracts probably only allow termination for criminal conduct not moral infringements. His sponsors will lay low for a while and wait for it to blow overbut they will still have to pay him his fees whether they use him or not. And once he hits the course and starts winning all problems are gone. Kobe was accused of rape. Does he have any problems with endorsements? Arod confessed to steroids. Shaq had severe marital troubles. Chris Brown will be back as long as he continues to make hit music. First and foremost it is about money and sponsors aren’t family run businesses with morals. they only care if it runs customers. When this blows over and it will because half of the “mistresses” will be proven liars and some other celebrity will crash; and Tiger wins his next major and closes in on the record it will be business as usual.
A young famous successful man, away from home, travelling to many different cities in a year is likely to be a magnet for many many women, no matter what beautiful wife and family waits for him at home.
Are we really all that suprised by a PR firms fabrication of the perfect husband, wife and family?
The couples that manage to be satisfied with what they have and honour their committments are few and far between and to be admired.
Maybe the lesson is not to put people on pedestals and assume they have feet of clay just like everyone else.
Re your casual and sexist use of the term sluts… given the context shouldn’t that label be reserved for Tiger?
And I’m quite at a loss for words re “…even if he did marry a white girl”. Really BFP? I can only hope you’re trying to be sardonic…
This blog is the typical uninformed nonsense you expect from people who think they are in touch with what’s happening in America, but aren’t. The notion that Tiger’s brand is dead is asinine.
Kobe Bryant, despite being framed for rape by an enterprising sex worker (who was masquerading as an innocent college student), was able to recover the bulk of his endorsement income within two years. Tiger Woods is not charged with a criminal offence, as Kobe was, and has a greater reservoir of goodwill to call on because of his middle class background and elite school connections. He is not yet permanently damaged.
Among advertising professionals who have appeared on American TV to comment on this case, opinion is divided as to whether Tiger will make MORE money when the scandal blows over, or about 10-30% less than his current $100 million annual income. Most predictions are contingent on the quality of his tournament play over the next two or three years. If he maintains his number one ranking, he is unlikely to suffer a significant long-term financial loss.
Of course, racists and women’s groups have declared war on the guy and are using the tabloid press to try to damage him as much as possible. In fact, he’s already being denounced as a “misogynist” because of his serial adultery with bimbos and whores he presumably can control with his money. But talent always trumps hate. If Tiger can still play golf, nothing else will matter that much.
I also wanted to point out that the co-called Natalie Holloway Effect on tourism in Aruba has been exaggerated. Natalie disappeared on Aruba in 2005. According to the Aruban Statistical Bureau, the annual number of stayover visitors for the island are as follows:
2004: 728,157
2005: 732,392
2006: 694,372
2007: 771,308
2008: 826,774
In other words, tourism fell by 5% the year after her disappearance, but has fully recovered its previous growth pattern since 2007. There has been no lasting damage to the Aruba brand.
CanucKBajan I agree with your comment re BFP ‘white girl’ astonishingly bad remark, shame on you.
As too Tiger Woods, the mans a fool, if you can’t keep it in your pants when away from home I see no point in getting married in the first place.
Tiger is living the life ,than many of the hypocrites who lectures on morality and vows,secretly wish they could. And that is the fact. The infatuation with the “brand” just proves the point that many don’t look at people for who they are, rather that what they would like them to be or what is manipulated to fit an image. We find it fasinating that a man whose worth is more than our GDP, can have mistresses and a “white wife”, yet we can’t seem to define what is a nuclear family in the traditional sense in Barbados and understand how that is tripping us up badly in our own moral decline.
BFP “even if he did marry a white girl” sounds like it was written by a black female member of your posse.
Your sanctimonius stance on race relations has been besmirched.
I await your explanation.
Marrying a white girl is not a sin. There are benefits with regards to the softness of hair.
Uh betta be careful. uh cuh get ban so i en gine sey nuh mo.
Its friday. Time to open de likker cabinet.
Knowing BFP I think that the ‘married a white girl’ phrase was supposed to get a rise and it did.
BFP
And, he betrayed all of us who rejoiced in his success because we thought he was one of the few genuine good guys
***********************************************
Spare me the sanctimonious twaddle, what Tiger did many men have done or would do if they think that they could get way with it.
By the way what is Bill Clinton’s brand? Has it been damaged after what he did with the intern in the White House? Last time I checked he was touring the world demanding large sum for speeches and promoting his Foundation.
Tiger Woods is the Victim.–”Big Time.”
Let’s look at the facts objectively:
1-Tiger’s rights were violated when his wife searched for names and phone number of the suspicious characters on his Blackberry Address Book.
2-By creating a public scene, she opened the current Pandora box which might have some far reaching consequences for them. Why she apparently failed to control her impulses?
3-Let’s suppose that the wife had good reasons to believe that Tiger has been unfaithful to her; she had the choice to walk out; she could get a divorce. She chose to assaulted him while his vehicle was in motion; thereby, damaged his car and put his life and other people lives in jeopardy as he was fleeing instead of assaulting her.
4-The case was not investigated properly. The wife was not arrested; the media keeps a selective mutism about her violent actions.
5-To add insult to injuries, police slap Tiger with a $164 fine. Why police fined Tiger if they failed to gather the pertinent facts regarding the so called accident.
6-Could you imagine if it were Tiger who assaulted her, and damaged her car, even if she committed blatant serial adultery, the authorities would grant her an immediate order of protection against Tiger. Police would have Tiger incarcerated the same way they did for O.J. Simpson. Tiger would have been portrayed in the media as a senseless and wicked criminal or even taxed as an animal.
7-The questions are:
Why tiger is still in seclusion?
Why Tiger does not have an order of protection yet? This is a double standard.
8- Why the wife just bought a Two million dollars house in her country few days before or after the incident? Usually people don’t buy house overnight. Is it a coincidence?
This article is not mine. The ideas sound like Shona. The words don’t sound like Marcus. What’s up, Marcus?
This whole idea of “one man, one woman, forever in a monogamous relationship” is absolutely contrary to Nature, if you will look around and observe.
This whole idea was hatched up at a time when society was in its infancy and is an idea that WILL NEVER WORK.
I don’t think I need to go on and on… what I’ve written above are the bare facts. Like it or not, take it or leave it.
@Flytrap
Except for one thing human beings have the ability to discerner right from wrong. That is why we were given a brain unfortunately we don”t always use it wisely. Animals on the otherhand do not have the same privilege..
Really, BFP. Try to be a bit less sensational and judgemental. This article made tiring reading.
This will boil down to a marketing issue and with every crisis lurks huge opportunity.
Tiger is doing the right thing now.
1) It cannot get worse so he shouldn’t speak to the press or the public for now. There is nothing he can do to redeem himself right now. He has already issued a statement.
2) Fix the underlying problem. His infidelity and his relationship with his wife and family.
3) Fix his golf game so that when he returns he will bring back what his brand was a built on. Great golf!
4) Re-launch his image – whatever it may be. At that time he can do the Oprahs, etc
To reach Pluto, one has to slingshot around Jupiter.
Once Tiger gets his relationships and game back on track, he will be able to build a strong brand again – not necessarily on a squeaky clean image but something that most of us normal people can relate to. A man who has risen above his failings.
The mistake Tiger or any star athlete or young star entertainer makes is getting married before their career is over.
It must be difficult to have the constant attention of gorgeous women most of them willing and ready.
It is easy for us poor average fellows to talk shiite
because nuh boddy in lookin at we or offerin we nutten.
Temptation?
@Cliverton not signed in
I hope you and BFP inc. are holding a meeting to discuss the spin you are going to put on the “white girl” remark.
Given that you accuse the “other” blog of racism, you need to explain why one of your own has an objection to a black or more correctly a mixed race man marrying a white girl.
Prehaps one of your very own needs counselling and racial sensitivity training.
In the words of the late MLK “judge not by colour of skin but by the content of character.”
Also,according to the great Philosopher Sparrow,
“all saltfish sweet.”
I mix up too.
A great point was made about the spectre of domestic abuse in the woods saga. If a man had laid a hand on a woman for cheating society and the media would carve him in two; Yet it is alright for Elin to resort to violence because she was wronged. A real example of gender hypocrisy which pervades society. An example that it is not always biased towards men. Another example and one which I wish the blogs would bring to the forefront is the it and run death of the cyclist this week. Recently we have seen the perpetrators of hit and run accidents serving jail time IRREGARDLESS of whether they were first time offenders or models of virtue. It will be interesting to see if this female offender is treated the same way since there are no redeeming factors in her case. She did not volunteer and come forward, she was identified from information produced by the Public.
While I think that we have too many serious intentional crimes occurring to be criminalizing persons who simply exercise bad judgment while driving, punishment should be consistent when circumstances are materially the same.
Maybe in future all Politicians and Sportsfolk and any Commercial Endorsers will have to sign a contract stating they will live next to Saintly and have no Skeletons in their closet?
That rules me out, my wife and I had pre-marital sex and at one of her former workplaces to boot and I did inhale some MJ in the past, oops!
Me say dat? Oh, and BTW, if I had to see such a contract in front of me? I would either set a lighter to it or tell them a good hard Bajan “Gor-Blimmuh!” and tell them what they can oralise…
You want ME for a commercial and not my baggage, if anything I should sue you for reducing my income unfairly as there was no such stipulation from the get-go!
@ Saying Nuttin
The cops could not charge Elin because Tiger would not press charges and they accepted his “story”.
You are right that there is gender bias in domestic abuse and the perception is always that it is the man’s fault.
What Tiger has to take responsibility for is his clandestine secretive dalliances with a number of females while he is a married family man.
He made choices that will cost him in the future.
I hope Lewis Hamilton has learned from Tiger’s mistakes.
Hamilton is also exceptionally talented and could be the next billionaire sportsman.
The #1 mistake that Tiger made is that he broke the 11th commandment. That one reads: DO NOT GET CAUGHT. May be he should take a trip to the land where he got married and get a little coaching from anyone of our politicians and many of our civil servants.
This is all a storm in a teacup and it will blow over like all storms have in the past. It hall all the attributes of a good story and the media is milking it for all that it is worth.
The next thing that we have to look for is one or two of his mistresses coming out with a steamy novel outlining Tigers’ obsession with ambien, spanking, dirty talk and mild BDSM.
Lastly many of you guys out there criticizing Tiger would have done the dog if they were ever given the chance to step into Tiger’s boots for a month. Hell, I would and I’ll have to be Jesus Christ reincarnated not to jump at such an opportunity.
All brands are built on perception, on marketing.
Most modern superstars are manufactured anyway, money, right place time.
There are many talented singers etc who get nowhere, because they did not get the right opportunity.
How much make up do the ‘stars’ really get, compared to the ‘real’ village beauty who gets none?
ALL manufactured.
Maybe this is not a lesson about Tiger’s Wood, but more about the shallowness of the society and lifestyle aimed for.
‘Man in the Mirror’?
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He’ll be back, you’ll see. Indescretions and immorality are hot new commodities in Celebrity Land.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Chappelles-Show-The-Racial-Draft
David Letterman did something similar when he had announced his affair/extortion attempt and I don’t remember a single one of his sponsors threatening to pull out from his show….
Even though I think The Story went REALLY
Far… I don’t think the sponsors should pull away-
-They’ll be hard press to find anyone who can
bring in that HUGE of a PUBLIC!!!
I mean infidelity in one thing-
But This is How far things went►
Confessions of a Convicted Las Vegas Madam-
Just when you thought Tiger Woods Couldn’t Surprise You Anymore-
Another Bombshell hits the tabloids! Orgies and Sex Fests- (Playboy Model in the Mix)
http://ucantbeserious.ning.com/profiles/blogs/confessions-of-a-convicted-las
While I don’t agree with all you put in this article. I do agree that Tiger is in some serious business trouble. He is just like many who let the fame and money go to their heads. But you have to admit that temptation is hard to resist.
I feel that while he may not be a poster child for morality he is still the best golfer and he will be back sooner than many think. once he starts winning again the sponsers will forgive him because the dollar sign is their only goal.