Rolled out as the practice rounds began for the 2013 US Open, Nike has launched a new Tiger Woods TV commercial for its new ‘TW 14’ golf shoe.
The theme aims to bring the atmosphere, excitement and thrill of the wider sporting world to the more traditional and staid world of golf.
Thus Tiger Woods emerges from a stadium-like tunnel to arrive on the first tee, where he gets his round under way once the starter’s pistol fires.
This approach continues with a boxing referee putting him under a count and fans attempt to distract his putting concentration like basketball crowds try and distract free-throw shooters.
The spot ends with both a Woods quote ‘I treat golf as a sport, I let other people treat it as a hobby’ and the tagline ‘For the athlete in every golfer’: thus driving home the message that the once exclusive and genteel world of golf is now on a footing as other uber competitive and aggressive sports.
Comment
Continuing its focus on branding Woods as a man who is all about the competition and the sport, Nike is both aligning its golf division with the rest of its sports segments and, perhaps more importantly, subliminally justifying the way it stood by Woods through his sex scandal by emphasising that it endorsers elite athletes for their sporting ability and prowess and not as social role models.
Links
TVC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcb3eAAK1s&feature=youtu.be
Nike Golf Website
http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikegolf/en_EU/
