While I read this book months ago, I just got it back from a friend and am considering it as a time filler and overall good read as I wait for baseball to start back up. The book paints the behind the scenes Cowboys just as we’d expect them – wild, crazy and with enough blow to put Columbia to shame. Definitely check it out.

In the 90’s Nike ran a campaign where Charles Barkley noted that he wasn’t a role model. Given their slot as Tiger’s biggest endorser, do you think  they would do a similar commercial as Tiger heads back to dominate the PGA Tour? I would love to see it and it would go viral but not sure if they’d risk it.  This whole idea came out of Christina Khoury’s blog post today, but i think that it could work. How about you?

Pros

• Opens up the new look of Tiger. Golfer not a role model
• May appeal to golf’s male audience
• Can help launch new brand based on performance
• Viral sensation

Cons

• Are you serious?
• Opens up Tiger’s credibility as a person to look up to
• Could hurt existing image/brand

Image - Batimore Sun

Unless you have been in a coma for the past four months, you are aware of Tiger Woods PR issue. If you have been in a coma (my apologies), live under a rock or are just out of it, please click here before continuing reading this post. As you may have heard, the world’s top golfer will break his silence and issue statements to a group of assembled media on Friday. While the speculation on what will be said, when he’ll return to golf and if there will be an apology will run rampant, there will be no Q&A so some may be left with a sense of emptiness. As a PR pro, I would like to offer some free advice to Tiger to help get his image rebuilding start on the right foot.

Don’t lie – While the situation may look bleak, it could be a lot worse. Treat your flack like you would treat a lawyer. Tell them the whole truth; if you feel like omitting things, I’d like to offer Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire as examples of why you should not leave any reasonable doubt in the mind of the public. This will also help your team run a tight ship in repairing your image.

Air your laundry – Now this piece of advice may sting a little, so please have a seat. While the public may know about your infidelity, it is important to let your flack know about any lingering bad news that may leak out. Now the approach can be done one of two ways. The first is to admit to everything that you have done – everything. It is risky, but it puts the kibosh on any more skeletons from coming out of the closet. The second is the more conservative approach but could open you up to more prying down the road. It is to simply tell your flack everything and have them on the ready to disprove everything that newly emerged sources have to say when they do emerge.

Personally I would air it all, it shows that you are human and will also gain some sympathy from the public. You’ve already gotten out of rehab for your sexual addiction so you are on the road to recovery already. It could also help make the sponsors less edgy around you.

All eyes on you – Prior to Thanksgiving, you may have been able to avoid the public eye away from the links, everyone will be looking for dirt on you. That counts everyone from Golf Week scribes to TMZ hacks, so be ready for it. With that said, you can quell some of the intrigue by taking option #1 above and by also making one thing clear in your opening statement, you will field questions on your personal matters once and after that one time any question brought up will end your interview. While some folks may call your bluff on this, stick to it. You are golf so if they want to get your take on something, they are playing by your rules.

Play nice – Now don’t take this as saying to lay off your dominating game, but rather to open up to your fellow golfers. Let them know that you are sorry and show the human side of you. There are more of them than you, so getting them on board with rebuilding Tiger2.0 can help get the media in line with your no personal talk mantra.

Dominate - At the end of the day, there is one thing that will silence critics instantaneously – winning. So the sooner you get back on the course in your cold-calculated way, the better. When you are winning, the golf world is relevant and the folks in the PGA front office have mile wide smiles on their faces and fat wallets. So when you win everyone wins.

While this post may fall onto deaf ears, in the rare chance that TW or his agent sees this post – call me. Contact info is on the about page.

What would you do if you were Tiger’s flack is there any advice that you’d offer him?

Well last Friday, the news was let out of the bag and earlier today my first post for the PR Breakfast Club went live. Here is the intro to my take on the NFL vs. New Orleans about Who Dat:

As a sports fan, you always want to see your team make it to the championship. Just getting to the game is good for community morale as well as local businesses. For fans of the New Orleans Saints, some of this goodwill and joy has lost its luster the NFL and some members of Louisiana are locked in an ugly PR battle over two words – Who Dat. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the phrase, it has been the rallying cry of the Saints and their fans and was prominently displayed in the Super Dome following their NFC championship win.

Yes, there are other two-word phrases that are much worse, so why the focus on them? One word answer – trademark – read merchandising. With the Who Dat craze swirling around the state, local shop owners have been hawking shirts with the phrase on it. That was until the NFL sent out cease and desist letters citing a 1988 trademark registered by the Saints. Well those letters have been met with angst from these shop owners and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal who is looking into pushing a lawsuit against the NFL over the ownership of the phrase.

Click here to read the post in its entirety.

Image - NFL

Dear NFL,

Let me start by saying, I love your product and you keep me entertained for over 17 weeks a year – so thank you. I just wanted to let you in on a little secret – which I am sure you probably know already – fans don’t care about the Pro Bowl. We also know that the move to the Super Bowl city wasn’t to draw attention to the game it was to save money and drive more revenue from the cities that host the game. It’s a smart business move and for that I applaud you.

What many fans will take offense to is that you are still trying to sell it as a viable game. But seriously, how can we take a game seriously when David Garrard and Vince Young are on the AFC roster and will see time in the game? The guys were waiver wire pick ups for desperate fantasy owners. Hell even owners are pissed that you are making Super Bowl players head to the game for some festivities.

All-star games in general are a joke and to be honest, why not keep it after the big dance? The game means nothing so why wait for Peyton Manning to sling some passes? Because then the whole BOA touchdown thing might mean something if him and Drew Brees had their say.

I know that you are the biggest league in the world, but please consider the fans. This is bad customer relations and PR for you guys.

Thanks.

Jeff

PS Here are some ways that you could rectify this for the future:

Make the game count – MLB does not do many things right, but why not make the winning conference the recipient of the Super Bowl the following year? It would spread the game around and give some incentive.

Do players care? – Let’s face it Miami just isn’t Hawaii, and imagine if this game was in Detroit. How many pulled hamstrings and opt-outs would you get? It’s all about fun in a tropical place for these guys and it could make for some interesting TV if you made skills competitions similar to the NFL challenge a few years back.

Fines – You don’t show, you get fined, simple as that.