Thursday, December 17, 2009

Tiger's Brand-Protection Days Could Be Numbered: PR Experts Say Next Few Weeks Could Be Crucial for Sponsorship Deals

By: Roseanna Sonnenfeld

 

      Over the next week or two, Tiger Woods' sponsors are going to have to decide whether they still want him associated with their brands.  PR experts say Tiger needs to take more professional responsibility with his business contacts.  To do this he needs to issue an apology.  "This is a tough call.  His sponsorships are based on his athleticism-not who he does or does not sleep with," said Jackie Wright, president of Rainmaker Communications in the Phoenix area.

 

      When thinking about his sponsorships and the companies that he is associated with, I think the right thing to do would be to issue an apology.  But like Wright says, his sponsorships are based on his athleticism.  Because of this, part of me feels as if he should issue an apology because he is in the public eye for those companies he is associated with. When he has screwed up, it somehow could make the companies seem as if they screwed up. The other part of me feels as if this is his personal life and his business, why should he have to issue an apology to the public and his sponsors when it is his own personal life?  They should be looking at how well he plays golf not how well his love life is going.  But he has put himself in the public eye and if an apology is what it takes to save his career than that is probably what he needs to do.

 

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