Advertising Meets Real Life in Tiger's Open Win

I reluctantly admit that I have become a bit of a major tournament golf freak. When Betty said she was going out of town and leaving me with the little ones (5,2, and 1) for the weekend, my first thought was "great" I can trap them in the house all Sunday morning and watch The Open Championship (It's not hip to say British Open anymore) without any pressure from an adult who doesn't care. That'll work.

Knowing that our Georgia son and fellow TarHeel Davis Love was out of it, my allegiance swung to often close finisher and playing for his mom Chris Dimarco. I like Tiger, but thought he was just supposed to do it and it would be just one more notch on an already well notched accessory. Chris played brilliantly and wound up just short of the Nike Machine. Then it happened. You probably know that Tiger, upon putting his last put, broke down on the 18th green sobbing and hugging his caddie, wife and some of his well insulated support staff. Wow! The ultimate PR machine who never let's us in showed us how much he missed his recently departed dad, Earl Woods, for just a moment.

To my point. Do you remember the Kelly Award winning "Hero" ads produced by Weiden & Kennedy in the late 1990's. Weiden & Kennedy was handed this Nike athlete that was already bigger than life and told to breathe more life into the character. Tiger was overexposed, considered overly confident, and thought of as Michael Jordan (UNC, 85) without any championship rings at the time. We all thought it was brilliant when W&K came out having Tiger talk about his hero, Earle Woods. At the time, I thought the brilliance was positioning the athlete in this light. The truth is that the brilliance was finding out that Tiger's strongest suit is his passion for the people around him and especially his dad. This was truly one of the most powerful print ads I have ever read. I can't find a copy but if you do please send me a link so I can include it in this post.

Smart, brilliant, funny, touching these can be present in all advertising, but all these with delivered as true make our passion powerful.