Earl Woods - Nike Commercial

Nike Commercial

On April 8, 2010, Nike released a television commercial, created by the Wieden + Kennedy ad agency, featuring the somber face of Tiger Woods (depicted in black and white) and the voice of Earl Woods. The audio track of the commercial was taken from a 2004 interview of Earl for the documentary DVD Tiger: The Authorized DVD Collection, in which Earl discussed comparing the "authoritative" nature of his wife, Kultida, to his own "inquisitive" nature. The commercial utilized a sound bite from that interview as a backdrop to the camera capture of Tiger's face, and it was widely interpreted as a skewing of Earl's words to posthumously address Tiger's own marital issues which had recently come to light; the commercial was released on the same day that Tiger had made his anticipated return to competition at the Masters Tournament following a five-month self-imposed absence during the resulting public fallout, and it was the first commercial to feature Tiger's participation since the scandal first breached public scrutiny.

Reactions to the commercial varied widely, with criticisms being particularly leveled at Nike for utilizing Tiger's own domestic issues for commercial gain and plaudits being forwarded to Tiger for addressing how the scandal had affected him both in private and public life.