Critic's Notebook: Tiger and Nike just do it

Wednesday night, on the eve of the first tournament he will play as an internationally known serial adulterer, Tiger Woods tested the waters of a related venue and revenue stream, appearing in a 30-second Nike spot, broadcast on the Golf Channel and ESPN. Or perhaps it was Nike testing the waters. In any event, they waded in together.

The association of athletic ability and moral wholesomeness dies hard in the American mind. But it's an old canard, the stuff of moldy children's books, Jack Armstrong radio serials and empty Wheaties boxes -- a sort of cultural propaganda meant to promote sports not just as the foundation of sportsmanship, but as a way to distract young minds, and especially bodies, from other, less savory pursuits. As we have learned again and again, this is often not the case. If anything, like the pop stars and movie actors they functionally resemble, professional athletes find opportunities for unsavory pursuits markedly increased.

The ad (below), shot in black and white, shows a silent Woods out on what looks like a golf course, seeming ... serious? sad? inscrutable? ... as the voice of his father, stolen from I know not what unrelated occasion, chides him from beyond the grave: “Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are and did you learn anything.” Papa Earl Woods may have been originally discussing the choice of a club or an angle of attack, but here it is obviously meant to remind us both of Tiger's sexual misadventures and, in a more positive way, that Woods is, like the rest of us, just another person in process.

Although smartly conceived and perfectly executed -- I have a certain chilly admiration for the ad-brains who created it over who knows how many meetings, e-mails and nights at the drawing board -- it is an odd, disquieting piece. That it's been shot in black and white, with a hand-held camera, is meant to connote seriousness, authenticity, facing facts in the cold light of day. But it's all a conceit, carefully calibrated and thoroughly arranged: The day itself did not appear in black and white; the light flashes near the end, which stylistically recall the shoestring aesthetics of the "true to life" French New Wave, are no accident. Woods, costumed and probably powdered, hit his mark and for 30 seconds tried to look inoffensive. And the use of his father's voice is just creepy, recalling those digitally mashed-up commercials in which Fred Astaire, too dead to refuse, was made to dance with a vacuum cleaner and an already late John Wayne got friendly with a bottle of beer.

And this is, of course, a commercial -- that is to say, phony -- a staged image of contrition that also works as an act of defiance: It says, "Think what you want of us, but we are back in business." Dressed in branded Nikewear, Woods is playing a part, that of a small boy suffering through a reprimand. You can't know from watching the ad how he actually feels about any of it, but his presence says, "I would like to get my career going again." As for Nike, they were never in the wholesomeness business, anyway. What they sell, and have always sold, is a lot closer to sex: Just do it.

-- Robert Lloyd (LATimesTVLloyd@Twitter)

Comments

[Cindy Corlett]

I watched it earlier today. My first reaction - creepy and manipulative. Since it is an advert I guess manipulative is to be expected, but I just don't like it, on so many levels.

[sarah long]

new nike slogan "Just do her"

[legalchick]

Brought to you by the same company that used an a showing attack on a woman in her own home to sell shoes.

[fedesq]

Staged? Manipulative? Sure, it's a commercial. But creepy? Not to my mind. This is not the equivalent of ads featuring Astaire and Wayne. I liken this more to the album of standards featuring Natalie Cole and her deceased father. After all, this is the voice of his dad. If anyone has a right to use it, it's Tiger Woods.

I also agree that there is something defiant in this ad, but not the defiance Lloyd ascribes to it. Much of the ink spilled on this story in the MSM has assumed that Woods owed something to the public for fooling them into believing he was a man/athlete worth emulating. In this ad, Woods (and Nike) might be saying that Woods owes an explanation to his father (and, by extension, family and close friends), but not to me. And he's right; he doesn't owe me anything at all.

[murcielago]

The time you would see Woods back in full swing is not long...His bad moral side will soon be history and long forgotten in american minds !

[JD]

Spot-on review and analysis. Thank you.

[SColla]

One sports writer recently asked his readers what they hoped would happen when Tiger Woods was standing over his first birdie putt at Augusta. For most of the anticipated television audience of millions, it was not a rhetorical question. Some probably held his admitted marital infidelities against him and wished public failure for him as punishment for his betrayal. Others may have rooted for his success on the theory that he has suffered enough in public for what was a private matter.

The PGA Tour, Nike, and Tiger’s fellow players will just be glad that he is competing at the Master’s. He is their economic engine, and they know it. For them, it’s time to get back to golf as it was before last Thanksgiving.

Most of us did not know exactly how to feel at that moment. We, however, were fascinated by the spectacle of Tiger trying to assert that his discipline and skill are still at his command even while under the most intense pressure of his career. Is the old Tiger really back?

I hope not, but not because I wanted him to miss that putt. In fact, I hoped he would make it. I wanted him to succeed as part of a larger process of finding real redemption for the bad choices he has made in his personal life because of his addiction. What will really interest me now is if we can begin to see “Tiger Woods 2.0” and if that version is still able to maintain the competitive edge that has made him the dominant player of his era.

Part of what made Tiger such a dominant player was his confidence in his ability to manage his challenges alone. Sure he had his coaches and his caddie and his fans, but Tiger had to make the shots by himself. More often than not, when Tiger had to make those shots, he seemed to be able to will himself to victory.

Competitive golf is a solitary game, and Tiger was as good at going one-on-one with his peers as anyone we have ever seen. All of his training, starting with lessons from his father, was geared toward convincing him that he could do it on his own. His talent and execution were unique, but by his own admission he became arrogant.

Now he has identified a new challenge that will require him to learn to reach out to others and ask for their help. Because the therapy he has undergone will suggest that he needs to surrender his will to a power outside of himself, and trust that he will be all right, this will feel counter to his nature. He will be counseled to focus more on the present and less on the outcome. For the competitor in him, this advice will defy logic and test his courage.

No one in his circumstances completely abandons his character, and the Tiger we see at Augusta will not do so either. But evidence of change may be observable in the way he treats himself during competition. Tiger surely hopes that his wife, his family, his friends, and his fans will forgive him at some point. To truly embrace recovery, however, Tiger will have to forgive himself too. Will the public allow him to do that? Will he be able to do that even if they won’t? Time will tell.

We’ve already seen him take a courageous step at his press conference at PGA Headquarters. Some have argued that this public disclosure was simply orchestrated as part of a larger marketing campaign, but I choose to give him the benefit of the doubt. For anyone of his public stature to undergo that personal humiliation and invasion of privacy without experiencing sincere remorse is beyond my realm of belief. Nevertheless, it was but one moment in what will be a lifetime of proving that he has developed a new group of skills to help himself master another extraordinary challenge.

If anyone can do it, I hope he can. He has already demonstrated that he is one of history’s truly exceptional athletes, but the quest he is on now has so much to offer. By what he has attained so far, we know that he is a dedicated and smart man. Can he now demonstrate grace and wisdom? He has achieved much of which to be proud, but can he exemplify true gratitude and humility?

Because of his own larger-than-life capacity for denial, Tiger Woods put himself in a position that, for many reasons, he must regret. Now, as the world watches, if he can become the man to match the golfer he already is, he will be a remarkable example of how a gifted, but imperfect, human being can reclaim his humanity.

[Ryan]

So your sitting down on a bright sunny saturday morning watching golf and then this comes on the TV...

[Ellen Armstrong]

I first saw the ad without sound and the look in Tiger's face seemed to be one of despair. He's trapped by the money-making machine that created him, and he knows it.

Nike, the company, has taken on the role of father figure in a kind of corporate psychosis. Walking into the lobby of the Beaverton offices, one sees a kind of hero worship I've never seen anywhere--a banner of Tiger several stories high, display cases with awards as if the company had earned them and not Tiger.

Many years ago, while studying psychiatric nursing, I learned that behavior produces an outcome, and no matter how crazy that behavior and outcome seemed, it was usually intended at an unconscious level.

Tiger has been under enormous pressure to perform since his father put a club into his hands. Maybe, he was just tired of it all, and the sexual escapades were a way to get rid of it-- get rid of the wife, family, big house and retainers, get rid of the professional pressures to be the best and support the golf industry, get rid of the demands of sponsors, get rid of the spotlight.

He almost succeeded, but Nike just wouldn't let go. So now we see the despair in Tiger's face. This is a very troubled man; we could see a real meltdown.

[frankiefrank]

The ad was brilliant. Everybody is talking about it. Its breakthrough. That is the purpose of advertising.

[Thatwood B. Telling]

My initial reaction was similar to Lloyd: Woods' dad's words are taken out of context-- which struck me as inappropriate-- and the whole concept seemed mercenary to the Nth degree. Watching a human being stand there in a self-built stockade and eat s**t to appease his sponsor was very unsettling, to put it mildly. After watching Tiger's post- opening round media conference on Thursday, I no longer feel Nike necessarily imposed this sentence on him against his will; he looks to be completely complicit, and I'm not sure that's much better than the alternative.

Granted, if anyone has the right to use Earl Woods' words to make a point, it's Tiger. But isn't he in trouble for not following what he knows himself to be correct behaviour? His failure was not in disobeying his daddy-- he's an adult. Shouldn't he be speaking for himself, instead of dragging his dead dad into all this?

[JayDam]

Phenomenal read. It is to be understood that while Woods remains a public figure,nothing whatsoever demands his transparency. He as an individual, has a wondrous right to privacy; he owes nothing to the public beyond an apology. He has every right to select to who he is to offer an explanation. Not to defend him - what he did is pathetic and a disgrace - but it is not my concern what he does apologize to his fanatics.

Personally, I feel that the controversy this commercial has stirred, makes this advertisement a product of a remarkable ingenuity.

[maggiediz]

This public media based "penance and flagellation" of Tiger Woods is just as repugnant and sincere as King Henry II of England's public penance and flagellation after uttering the words..."Will no one rid me of the troublesome priest?"... after which four of knights in shining armor savagely killed Thomas a Beckett, the meddlesome priest.

[Don]

This ad brings to mind the famous quote from the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

Is there nothing Nike or Woods won't say or do to keep those dollars rolling in?

[hoffmfel]

Creepy, manipulative or not. Nike needs to be credited for supporting Tiger, during good times and most importantly, during the bad. Unlike the other companies that pulled their endorsements, Nike needs to be applauded for showing integrity and strength of character for supporting someone, even at their darkest time. How many of us can claim a true friend such as this?

To Tiger, keep your chin up and don't let the haters tear you down. Everyone is human and no one should throw stones lest they live in glass houses.

[Jackmac]

I hope this helps people realize that being really really really good at swinging a club at a little ball means nothing to character or value as a human being beyond being really really good at swinging a club at a little ball.

[California Native]

Nest on board, a Nike swoosh T-shirt that says "Just do her."

[bedtimeforbonzo]

The ad is much like Tiger himself: phony.