Tiger Woods's Provocative New Nike Commercial

Nike brings back the voice of Earl Woods in new Tiger ad

By Jay Busbee

And the Tiger Woods controversy train keeps rolling on. Nike is running a new ad that uses the voice of Tiger Woods' late father Earl over an image of a remorseful, nearly broken Tiger.  

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/7293521/19033053

"I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?" Earl asks.

Powerful stuff, that, especially given how significant a role Earl Woods played in Tiger's life.

Now, there's an argument to be made that the ad is over the line, using Earl Woods' words in a way that he obviously didn't have approval over. On the other hand, this ad was made with Tiger's consent and participation. And really, who better to pass judgment on Tiger than Earl?

Nike, of course, has a history with provocative Woods ads; they crafted the classic "Hello World" and "I am Tiger Woods" spots. And they're one of the few companies to stick with him through his recent troubles. So it's appropriate that they'd be the ones to set about shaping his new public commercial image. Clearly, they're not taking the safe, conservative route.

All right, your take. Exploitative or appropriate?

I think Tiger is truly remorseful for everything that has happen and all the shame he has caused his family, himself ,and golf and I think Nike is doing the right thing by staying with him. They can use him in very powerful ways now as a teaching tool for our youth about the importance of leading a good lifestlyle and morality. Tiger can make up for many of the disappointments he caused by showing our youth that you can make mistakes and still improve your life if you want to and that how you behave does have a great affect on other people. Nike can be a big part of this campaign and come out with a very stong partnership going forward with Tiger.

Tiger is coming back and people can't and don't want to accept it. He has admitted he made a mistake and is sorry for it. He knows he has disappointed millions of fans, especially would have disappointed his father, if he was still here today. He looked up to Earl, but through this all it has just shown that even someone as great as Tiger isn't perfect. He is ready to make a change and is now up to us to forgive his past and move on.

Rebecca--I hear you and respect your points. I see this ad as Nike taking a corporate stand and supporting a man they've been making money off of for all this time. We don't know how real it is to Tiger himself. What we do know is that he participated in this commercial, indicating consent with how it was portrayed. A good question to ask is what do those words mean to him? Nike may be hoping this ad generates sales, but what message is Tiger trying to send? Perhaps these words do to him what they would do to us if we looked at this ad beyond the scope of it being an ad for Nike. I think Tiger has done quite a bit to show his remorse, for whatever that's worth, and in watching this I can only imagine how these words might affect him today. Most ads are for the sole purpose of generating sales. However, some do promote messages as well. Keep in mind, sticking with Tiger is a risk to Nike when it comes to puplic approval. So it may not be all about the money this time.

This is heartwarming at first glance. You think "Wow Nike "gets it" and "Tiger really feels bad" etc. But then I remembered this is advertising and advertising is meant for only one purpose... making money. So yeah, if old Earl could come back from the dead and talk to his son, it WOULD be spectacular and heartwarming. But that's not what happens here. This is just a commercial. No talking dead dads having a man-to-man conversations with their lost sons. No. It's not real, and that's what advertising is all about... clouding reality for the sake of money.

That sound track was from Earl talking to tiger before his death. It was about golf, not what several of you might think. He said it in regards to a tournament he played in and lost. He was a bad boy and threw his clubs and made his mom mad. So Phil Knight uses the sound track of when he was a kid and made it sound like it's about his cheating way of life. Very tricky, but he did'nt get over on me. He's still a LIAR, Cheat, and womanizer. Well that does'nt make him so bad does it girls? Let your children follow in his footsteps, you too will be proud later in life. Look everyone, just stand back and watch how they try to make him look like a Billion dollars.

Wow... what a bunch of bull-crap... nothing more than making money, money, money.
It's just an old audio recording of his dad speaking to Tiger about an unrelated event.  Clever move by Nike.  But I don't buy it for one second.  Totally not about Tiger being sorry for what he's done to his innocent wife and kids.

1. Tiger is a cheater.  No commercial can save his sins.
2. His wife should divorce him and get half his net worth.

unless if he did not sign a prenup

unless if he did not sign a prenup

the more reason why black men should not marry white women... and then cheat on the white woman.

i don't get it, does she have the right tools? women with the right tools and abilities makes a man happy and to think black men are 'huge'