A short livestream commentary by TJ Walker criticizing Tiger Woods’ public-relations response to a satirical, clearly-labeled fake interview by Dan Jenkins in Golf Digest. Walker argues Woods’ overreaction—public letters and attacks—reinforces the satire’s premise that Woods is humorless and makes repeated PR mistakes that harm his reputation and endorsements despite his success as a golfer.
Chapters
PR blunder of the day goes to Tiger Woods. Folks, this is almost too bizarre to even believe that someone could be this obtuse. But Tiger woods has gotten himself into a whole brouhaha over an article that was labeled in big broad letters in the headline a fake interview. Dan Jenkins is a reporter columnist for Golf Digest and I'm not a regular reader, let me be up front. But he did a satire of an interview with Tiger woods and he labeled it fake and he labeled it as I imagined it. So there's absolutely zero trickery here. There's zero deception, there's zero misleading of readers. One of the things the article does is make the point that Tiger woods is somewhat humorless. Well, now Tiger woods has confirmed this. He has caused a big stink. He's had his PR henchmen get involved. He's written letters, he's made posts on other websites attacking this vilify. How dare anybody make fun of King Tiger Woods? Essentially, he's his argument. So in the process, he reaffirms the central premise of Dan Jenkins satire. And a lot of satire is about getting to the truth that Tiger woods is essentially a humorless, arrogant little snot. And here is Tiger woods proving that with his actions. And just from a basic PR blunder. I mean, if there's an article written you don't like and it's in a semi obscure publication that the public doesn't really read, and you're an incredibly famous person, don't spend your time attacking in the media because whatever happens, you're going to guarantee that a million percent more people are going to see that article now. So it's just classic bad. And now this doesn't surprise me or anyone has looked at Tiger Woods. I mean, because when you remember the whole incident of his infidelities and the golf club and the tearing out of the home late at night, not talking to the media for months, I mean, every single thing he did with his media debacle and his crisis hit his reputation was the worst possible thing you could do. It's clear to me that if he has media advisors, he doesn't listen to them. Or he is so quick to fire anyone who doesn't tell him what he wants to hear, that he's now surrounded himself with media advisors who simply reaffirm his every worst impulse. Look, Tiger woods is still a great golfer. He's still a lot richer than you or me. He still has endorsement deals. But if he handled his reputation a little better, it could be twice as big. And you could say well, you know, if you're worth a billion dollars, what does it matter if you're worth 2 billion? I guess you could take that attitude. But he certainly seems determined to make himself dislikable and less attractive to sponsors and the public with actions like this.
