Weather: Sydney 15°C - 26°C . Fine. Sunny.
IT'S hard to know where sympathy should lie. It may have been hard to warm to Tiger Woods' squeaky-clean image. But it is even harder to look forward to a world in which all sportsmen must either be saints or brilliant hypocrites.
Woods' personal brand has gone from Midas touch to Achilles heel in a matter of two weeks.
The big corporates who built brand Tiger now can't wait to offload him. Soft drink maker Gatorade has stopped its range of Tiger Focus energy drinks, and advertisements starring Woods are quietly disappearing from US screens.
There is no evidence that Woods has lost the ability to hit a golf ball or outwit his opponents. But image, we are learning, affects sport's economics all too clearly. The best golfer in the world is worth a lot more when he parades himself as a good family man.
All this, lest anyone should be fooled, will not make the next generation of sports stars more inclined to be better people. It will just make them more determined not to get caught.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
I have never been convinced that companies recoup their costs from massive deals.
A few years ago Woodworm cricket bats -- which no one had ever heard of -- suddenly hired a handful of the most famous players in the world, including Andrew Flintoff. Woodworm glittered brightly, then abruptly fizzled out.
Sponsorship is one thing; endorsement is altogether more dubious. Even the concept of endorsements and product placement is dubious.
This summer, playing at a charity match, I was asked by a former team-mate who now works for an energy drink company if I wanted to interview any of his sporting clients. He would grant me an exclusive interview, so long as I asked one question: How do you prepare for a big game? This would, he explained, be followed by a long endorsement of the benefits of his company's drink.
Not my thing, I said, but I did learn something: in my naivity, I had never before understood why newspapers ran boring photos of sportsmen brandishing cans of caffeinated soda.
Who benefits is a question that lies behind too many things in sport. And now Woods' sponsors are saying they no longer benefit enough. The PR expert Howard Rubenstein even went so far as saying that Woods was beyond PR redemption. In truth, PR may well be beyond redemption, but Tiger Woods is not.
The precedents are good: global superstars of Woods' stature often suffer dips in marketability, but rarely permanent collapse. David Beckham, quite absurdly, became a national hate figure for being sent off in the 1998 World Cup. He responded by being the best player in the premiership the next season and more than regained whatever ground he had lost. Rumours about his personal life have also had little or no long-term effect on his brand.
Woods may never before have imagined that a comparison with Kate Moss could be good news. But it is. When Moss faced allegations of drug abuse, the fashion industry looked set to drop her from their ad campaigns. But Philip Green stepped in and asked her to design a new range for Topshop. Perhaps Sir Philip wanted to rescue an ailing star; the more businesslike explanation is that Moss was suddenly very affordable again. An overvalued market had become undervalued.
That is what may happen to Woods. The Tiger market, having long been saturated, is now evaporating. So it may well be the moment to invest in the Tiger economy.
We can only hope that Woods himself has got more important things on his mind. But he might reflect that the best brand of all is not relying on a brand at all. If you're always yourself, you can never be exposed.
Ed Smith is a leader writer at The Times and former England cricketer
[To view video please enable JavaScript and Flash.]
HILARIOUS examples of when English isn't quite English.
AUSTRALIA'S corporate elite are demanding more leadership from the government on climate change, taxation and infrastructure policy.
NBN Co's minimalist approach to building the broadband network will put the nation on a $43 billion path "back to the future".
SCIENTIFIC advisors to Australia's synchrotron have begun to resign in protest over leadership and governance at the Melbourne facility.
A DAY after Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, the US looks set to sell a more weapons to Taiwan - straining ties with China.
HE flies a big Australian flag outside his office in Santa Monica and regularly bills $20-30 million to work on a film.
STEPHEN Smith has had more successes than failures as Foreign Minister.
Copyright 2009 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT +11)..
Read Full Article »