Tag Heuer Ambiguously Finalizes Position On Relationship With Tiger Woods

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Dec 21st 2009 at 8:03PM

"The relationship between the leader in prestigious sports watches and chronographs since 1860 and golf virtuoso Tiger Woods has always been extremely professional and productive," was part of a statement directly from Tag Heuer recently on its relationship (since 2002) with troubled sports star Tiger Woods. I believe that a follow up to this story was necessary because Tag Heuer has been flipping around a bit. Post extra-marital scandal statements from the popular watch brand Tag Heuer confirmed its commitment to its promotional relationship with Tiger Woods. Within a day or two the brand reviewed the current state of Tag Heuer's public opinion as well as his intent to leave the world of professional golf for some indeterminable amount of time, and it looked as though they had a good excuse to release Mr. Woods from his "obligations." Thus, Tag Heuer then reported that it was strongly reconsidering its relationship with Tiger Woods, and reports indicated that they felt Mr. Woods was going to be too much of a liability to the brand image, with not enough future value given his leave of absence from the public eye.

All of a sudden Tag Heuer seems to have come to their senses and realized that despite the scandal, no matter how minor or major it is, Tag Heuer is still a very valuable personality and image for the brand. In what I hope is their final position, they indicate that they will temporarily scale down Tiger's involvement or image in current advertisements, but still retain him in select ad campaigns. Don't expect to see too many more Tag Heuer "Watch are you made of?" campaigns with Wood's face attached to the ad - because the public has an answer to what Wood's is made out of. Plus, Tiger's future as the face of Tag Heuer will of course depend on if and when he returns to professional golf (which he likely will). Part of Tag Heuer's reluctance to drop Woods all together might have something to do with Tiger being titled PGA Tour player of the year. I promise that this will be the last time this story is mentioned - no matter how many times Tag Heuer seems to change its mind. Several of Tiger Wood's other sponsors have dropped him altogether, while a few like Tag Heuer are committed to the international star, but will limit his presence in ads for the foreseeable future.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: ad, campaign, relationship, sponsor, Tag Heuer, TagHeuer, Tiger Woods, TigerWoods