Nike Airing New Tiger Woods' Commercial During Masters

By Will Brinson 

From: http://backporch.fanhouse.com/

Not many people stood by Tiger Woods as his personal life was falling apart. And even fewer sponsors seemed to be by his side.

Nike, however, can count themselves among the loyal. Which is probably why they're the first sponsor to feature Tiger in a commercial, which will air beginning Wednesday night.

"We support Tiger and his family as he returns to competitive golf," said Nike spokesman Derek Kent. "The ad addresses his time away from the game using the powerful words of his father."

The ad, seen below (via Darren Rovell at CNBC), features Tiger -- in black and white -- staring into the camera with the familiar voice of his father asking questions in a presumably omniscient manner.

Earl Woods says, "Tiger, I am more prone to being inquisitive, to promote discussion," Earl says in the spot. "I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything?"

This isn't the first time Tiger and Nike have used his father in commercials; one of the most awesome displays of marketing came around Father's Day in 2008 when they played Earl's voice over clips of the two practicing golf and some sentimental music (the "You'll never meet someone as mentally tough as you ..." commercial; embedded below the new ad).

The only issue here is that whereas Nike harnessed their ability to market and combined it with a very touching appeal to fathers and sons -- while the appeal to second chances here does make sense, something about the commercial as a whole comes off a tad bit off.

Is it the combination of appealing to the consumer for forgiveness amid a pile of swooshiness all while using Earl's voice? Well, it might be. Having said that, Nike stuck by Tiger throughout this whole sordid mess, so, by all means, advertise away.



And the old one, for comparison's sake: