Sure, all the TV ads featuring Tiger Woods have evaporated. But what about this beauty, spotted at Newark Airport? It’s practically loaded with double entendre.

The image of him lurking behind a cactus, combined with newly sexualized overtones to the term “opportunity,” put this ad on par with watching a Megan’s List roll-call of sexual predators. The name “Tiger” doesn’t really help either.

The real problem with all these Tiger ads and why they’re getting pulled, is that he’s simply not endorsing a product. The brands instead are trying to co-opt his image as their own.

Which is a slippery proposition to bring to the table for any brand building meeting. Because now, that Accenture tag line takes on a whole host of new meanings. It’s basically a lazy approach, that’s a gamble for any brand to take on ANYONE. It’s amazing that the risk on this was never appreciated.

Now consider, Netflix has a new viral pitchman in the form of Gavin McInnes (of Vice fame). However if someone Googled around and questioned Netflix about Gavin’s un-P.C. opinions on “Puerto Ricans,” cocaine or “gays” – they could simply say he’s a hired gun. Nowhere does Netflix take the stance their brand is intermingled with personal identities. However, in his defense McInnes later claimed that the “white supremacist” comments made to the NY Times were an elaborate ruse to undermine the credibility of The Times – by exposing the fact they’re not fact-checking the fact he is – in fact – not racist. Apparently that wasn’t too clear for many advertisers and caused a hiccup at Vice, which later became mitigated by McInnes breaking away from the brand.

“The hysteria led to this New York Times Style Section cover where the author lazily chose several inflammatory comments, glued them together and stuck white supremacist at the top. She pasted a phone call about white guilt, to an e-mail wherein I suggested a debate with my Islamic coworker (and roommate) Suroosh, and an antiracist joke from several years ago that becomes reversed when taken out of context…”

These considerations are valuable, when you consider Ad Age trumpeting a new era of “community managers,” and other social media hired hands. Wherein the skill-set requirement is so low, you’re really just looking for a low-rung copywriter or Yelper, to hop online and tout your brand. So someone with experience in writing for magazines or blogs aimed at “tastemakers” might seem like a good option. However, we suggest you glance over Google exhaustively for any sordid comments – which are sort of implicit in the canon of hipster opinion. We guarantee if they wrote ANYTHING about youth trends in the window of ’99 – ’05, it’s probably edgy.

Tags: Brand Building, Gavin McInnes, Hipster, Netflix, Tiger Woods
Posted in: General