The Market for Tiger Woods

Everyone knows Tiger Woods. Just about a year ago Tiger was the most marketable and richest athlete ever. He had endorsements with Gatorade, Buick, Nike, AT&T, Gillette, and Accenture Waver. He had his own video game and was featured in many magazines (ex. Vogue). Tiger had a squeaky-clean image, so there was not a thing that Tiger touched that didn’t sell. He is a household name; even now we refer to him simply by his first name, Tiger.

And then the unthinkable happened. We all know the situation: Tiger crashed his Escalade, he tested positive for Ambien and alcohol, his mistresses surfaced and the rest is history. Even if you haven’t followed the situation that closely, everyone has seen the news reports and everyone has heard the basic information revolving around Tiger. Almost all of his endorsements were pulled, or put on hold, and his image was dirtied. Will his image be forever tarnished? Will his market-appeal ever be restored?

I am an avid sports fan so I felt like blogging about this situation. Tiger made his mistakes (I’m not backing up the guy because I feel what he did was absolutely wrong, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here) and he should absolutely pay for his actions, but he is not the first athlete/actor to do these things. Other famous athletes have had affairs; Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird for example. And other athletes have had incidents which involved alcohol or the abuse of it. Michael Jordan is one of the most respected athletes in all of sports. His Air Jordan brand has no problem getting athletes or actors to market the sneakers and clothes, and getting them to sell. At 11 a.m. et. On Friday, Tiger will make his first public statement since the incident in November. Is this his road to recovery? Why is Tiger’s image suffering so much? Is it because he is in a different sport (as opposed to the NFL and NBA)? Do you agree that Tiger’s image should have been pulled off the market and do you agree that he should have lost his endorsements? Will he ever have the same appeal?