Patrick Lawler shoots San Francisco using the RED ONE @ 4K 16:9. Which will mean very little to you until you view this video in HD at full-screen. His stunning videography makes us glad to live and work here. (And should give you food for thought if you're wondering whether or not to come visit the Mortar.)
So perhaps you've heard of this Tiger Woods fellow. Been in the news a bit lately. Kinda took Nike's "Just Do It" tagline a bit literally. Here is Nike/W+K's rejoinder, featuring Tiger's recently deceased father. It's fascinating, on a lot of levels.
Is it nakedly exploitative and self-serving? Absolutely. Which is interesting in-and-of-itself. This spot doesn't try to be anything else. Nike is saying, in effect, "You're not stupid. You know we're trying to sell golf crap. And you know we've invested gajillions in this guy. And you know no one has more to gain from a potential comeback than us. But still, check this out."
That's pretty smart.
We bet a lot of people will make the (facile) charge that "Nike's trying to put one over on us." We don't think that's true. The situation is what it is. Nike has to face it head-on whether they want to or not. So they're putting their biggest star out there and letting his dead father scold him for thirty seconds. They're treating us like adults, and they'll probably reap the whirlwind for doing so. We wish them luck with that.
But wait, there's more.
This is a very tightly-controlled exercise in American Celebutard Contrition. By which we mean – the standard drill is:
Celebutard Does Something Bad.
Lies About Same.
Comes Clean.
Hides/Goes To Rehab.
Appears on Oprah to Explain Self/Take Whuppin'.
Lies Low, Waits For Someone Else To Do Something Worse.
All Better.
Tiger can't really pull off step #6 if he expects to remain in the job he's trained for since he was five years old. But what's interesting is how Nike, Tiger, and W+K are getting around step #5.
He actually is taking his whuppin', and from his dead father, no less. "Sure, Nike – dig up Dad and have him scold me while I stand there and take it." Dramatic. Undoubtedly painful. But far less undignified – and uncontrolled – than the typical Oprah Shame Spectacle. Does it let Tiger off too easily? Probably. Does it rehab his brand? Oh hell, no. But it's a necessary step toward that end. Does it sell Nike Golf? Time will tell. Does it get people talking? Oh, hell yes. Which is good for Nike, and astonishingly freaking great for W+K.
It makes us wonder – who's in charge here? Phil Knight? Tiger? Dan Wieden? We're talking a $100 million-plus endorsement deal here. Certainly Nike has the right to make a few demands. And W+K has a duty to the brand to deliver an emotional gut-punch. But where did the decision-making start? And end? Who said, "This is what we're going to do." ?
Finally, the voiceover itself.
"Tiger? I am more, um, inclined to be inquisitive…to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was…I want to find out what your feelings are…and, did you learn anything?"
On the one hand, this is an awfully soft wristslap for one of the biggest Bimbo Eruptions in modern history. We rather thought Elin's approach was more appropriate.
On the other, we live in a world that's absolutely dominated by mass media. (A world Nike and W+K had a pretty big hand in creating, if you ask us.) We see the havoc the Global Hype Machine is capable of wreaking every time we turn on a tv, computer or however you get your news these days. Look around – it's scary out there, and getting scarier by the second.
So. Is this self-serving? Yes. Does it let Tiger off too easily? Definitely.
But.
Has the calm, measured, "let's all take a deep breath" nature of Earl's speech taken things down a notch? And has the spot – all elements taken together - perhaps even changed the very nature of the conversation about: Nike, Tiger, marital infidelity, celebrity, and mass media?
Has W+K rebranded the f#*$ing apology!?
We kinda think it has. We may change our minds later. But…wow.
(All that being said, South Park did it way better, and two weeks earlier. Those guys are the heavyweight champions of the world. Very NSFW, but hilarious.)
Yeah, yeah, we know – you've seen this by now. But we're giving it some (more) gratuitous play because it has semi-nudity and people wearing bear heads not because it has semi-nudity and people wearing bear heads, but because we liked what this fellow Adam had to say about it:
"Statistically dubious, mildly patronising and about 3 years too late to
be relevant. The internet isn't going to destroy the ad agency. Blogs
aren't going to destroy TV. The internet forces a more open dialogue,
sure, and makes it harder to cover up a bad product with a good ad.
The internet is the world's largest communications tool, connecting you
with thousands of people you wouldn't otherwise be able to connect with.
Good advertising understands this. Bad advertising doesn't."
We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Wait, maybe we could have: Use the internet (and all the other media at your disposal) to talk with your audience, not at them. Right?
