Tiger, dad and Nike

Well, enough people have emailed me wanting to talk about Nike's new controversial ad for Tiger Woods. If you haven't yet seen it, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIYejgkqd0o

The first thing I'll say is that the fact that we're all talking about this ad has done what very few marketers succeed in doing these days, which is "be talked about".

Let me also say that I completely get the divide for people on this ad. We put this around the agency last night and almost exclusively, the women detested it and the men applauded the principal of the message. The other divide was on the use of Earl Wood's (Tiger's late father) voiceover taken out of context for the purpose of the commercial.

Nike was one of the few sponsors that stuck by Tiger during he and his family's very public and humiliating events. The fact that they aren't swishing (pardon the pun) the situation under the carpet and are brave enough to stand beside him with their brand and this message speak volumes about Nike as a company, in and of itself. Great work takes courage and sometimes controversy. Nike demonstrates this in spades. But is it right?

For me personally, this is one of the best ads I seen in a long time. It humanizes Tiger and Nike even though it's wrapped in a commercial message. Though I don't know the background (which I'm sure is soon to follow), my guess is that Tiger endorsed the use of his father's voice as a payment of homage and respect to his father who died before this all came out.

But suspicions aside, the thing I am convinced of is that Nike is the most courageous company in America at the moment and Tiger (a famously shy and quiet individual) has decidedly taken centre stage in a compelling way. He looks sad but determined as the camera slowly pans in and the message from his father, ends with "And, did you learn anything?" My take away from it is that yes, he's learned from it and in front of his father suggests to me, he's going to be a better person for it.

The only critique I would offer is that they should have only aired this spot once and let the social media drive it from there.

We're all no doubt over-analyzing this, but I think that's the point, no?

What do you think?