Gatorade: The Real Reason Tiger Woods Had To Go to Sex Rehab

No matter what the result of Tiger Woods’ extended stay in rehab, the most significant reason he had to seek treatment—other than a last-ditch attempt to save his marriage—was to preserve his future as a product endorser.  

Yes, it’s possible the fear people saw in his eyes last Friday was because of a divorce attorney, but the sight of his bank account dwindling due to the exodus in sponsors is most likely also on his mind.

Gatorade’s “dumping” of The Striped One hammered that point home. Sure the sports drink company tried to sneak it in, announcing on a Friday, the better to be buried in other weekend activities and the Olympics.

But was it a coincidence that it was just one week ago Woods spoke to everyone? Surely the powers that be in Tiger-land knew this Gatorade issue was coming at them.

So, it’s time to focus on what’s not being said or written in the golf press: The advertising community has now officially decided that Tiger Woods is poisonous for mass marketers.

Most sportswriters don’t spend time in ad meetings or creating images for products. They shrug shoulders and lump all athletes into an “it’s what they do” category.

They have never been concerned with branding or the associations a product has. They are supposed to try to peel back the layers. But as anybody in the ad game will tell you, image really is everything, or at least it’s a heck of a lot.

No company that sells to "Ms. Buying Products in America" wants to have its image or products associated with a person, place, or situation that is contrary to the “national morals.”

The company pictures the female consumer in the grocery store. She’s in the beverage isle. She has youngsters in her home or youngsters visiting her home.

She reaches for Gatorade, and then stops. 

She remembers Tiger Woods.

She remembers the 19 mistresses. She frowns. She looks at the shelves and reaches for any other product that is not associated with Tiger Woods because she does not want that association in her house. 

She doesn’t want a phone company with that association, either. This is what is going on in this country and around the world. The little decisions that work their way up the corporate channel.

Gatorade is owned by Pepsi, which also makes Quaker Oats, Fritos, and Tropicana products. This is apple pie and flag stuff. You do not drag these products into the morals gutter to be overtaken by your competitors who may have a person of better character endorsing them.

Coke, for instance, has the Olympics. Now this does not mean it hurts the image of Gatorade with its primary consumers, who we presume are boys and men. It may actually enhance it with them. But it does reduce sales from women who still make the majority of purchase decisions.  

Surprisingly, it doesn’t matter what the personal morals of the ad people or the morals of Ms. Buyer are. They could all be together in brothels. That’s not the issue. The issue is the association of a product with a tainted image, which is what Woods now has.

If you don’t believe this, think about Toyota for a moment. Early on, its cars were not perceived to have good quality. Toyota worked to overcome this with great success.

The company became so well liked that many people preferred Toyota to GM or Ford or Chrysler. Toyota had such a good image that it created Lexus, a high-priced car to compete with Mercedes, and that branding was successful.

Now, through an engineering glitch, Toyota is desperately trying to preserve the quality image it has carefully crafted over the last 35 years. An accelerator pedal, not the competition, may be its demise. 

So, back to Woods. The Accenture defection was not a surprise. It's a publicly traded company. It simply cannot afford to be associated with scandal. Period. Tag Heuer—less of an issue as that is a narrower market. AT&T, though, was a landslide. And Gatorade is real piling-on. 

It does not mean that Woods will never be able to endorse products again. He will always have Nike because, before Woods, there was no Nike Golf. Nike may take a hit in sales for the short term, but the company is large enough to absorb that and go on.

No matter what Phil Knight paid Woods or pays him in the future, it is not enough to compensate for what Woods has done for Nike. Besides, it’s primarily a men’s product category.

However, in the future, non-golf product endorsements for Woods will be determined by the kind of person he chooses to be in the future. His post-rehab self.

After a year or so, after he wins tournaments again and particularly if he surpasses Jack Nicklaus’ major championship record, someone wanting a competitive edge will sign Woods, but potentially to less than he might have commanded prior to Thanksgiving 2009. 

It may be a different product category or a mostly male product category. The reason male products will work is that Woods did what many men would like to be able to do. If you think this is wrong, you don’t know men. Nobody wants to talk about that, either.

Woods may make as much in endorsements later on as he did pre-scandal because advertisers are a bit like lemmings. Once a new endorser comes forward, the momentum will begin and they will race to the water.

But no matter what, Woods is no longer as wholesome as apple pie. Those days are gone. He knows it, and it is one reason he had to speak out and say he was addressing his problems.

This was one reason he looked so concerned when he spoke.

Accenture. Tag Heuer. AT&T. Now, Gatorade.

These are the people who funded his foundation and tournaments, although Gatorade indicated it would continue to sponsor the foundation, just not pay the athlete.  

One large sponsor is left: Chevron. The oil corporation hasn't withdrawn from the Tiger Woods December tournament, but it is worth watching. If that one goes, he is in a world of hurt where endorsements are concerned.