Most effective commercial ever?
June 16th, 2008, 3:43 pm · Post a Comment · posted by kylew
The folks at Nike sure know how to run an advertising campaign.
Did you catch the Tiger Woods ad that ran late Sunday during the final round of the U.S. Open?
It featured the voice of Tiger’s late father, Earl Woods, talking about the challenges he gave to his son to help develop his mental toughness. The video clips were of a young Tiger along with his dad.
A typical challenge: Earl Woods would wait until Tiger was ready to swing, and then drop a golf bag or make some noise. Tiger would learn to stop his swing, regather his thoughts, and then hit his shot.
The commercial ended with Earl’s words: “I told him he would never meet another player as mentally tough as he was. And so far he never has. And he never will.”
We come back from commercial to see Tiger drain a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the U.S. Open, with a bad knee, trailing by one shot, to force an 18-hole playoff (which of course he won).
Unreal.
Mental toughness? Yes, I would say that qualifies.
Two thoughts here:
* Is that not the most effectively timed commercial ever? If there’s ever been a commercial that ran with better timing, I would like to know what it was.
* Could you “train” your son or daughter the same way Earl Woods trained Tiger? By all accounts, there was nothing “wrong” with Earl Woods’ training methods. He made things tough for Tiger, but he also explained exactly why he was doing it and how Tiger would benefit down the road. This in a day and age when I hear of parents buying their kids bigger trophies after summer baseball season because the league-provided trophy wasn’t big enough — never mind the kid hadn’t actually accomplished anything. I look at my two-month-old son, and he won’t be coddled — he’ll be asked to earn everything he ever gets — but I’m not so sure I can take the next step and intentionally throw obstacles in the way so I can one day say, “I told him he would never meet another player as mentally tough as he was. And so far he never has. And he never will.”
Could you? Have you? Should you? Tell me your thoughts.
