Archive for December, 2009

One of the most difficult tasks as a sports public relations practitioner today is convincing professional athletes that they need someone to manage their PR and publicity-related interests. The same way a pro athlete may retain a lawyer, an accountant, an agent, a trainer or a business manager; today’s emerging technology has altered the sports industry to the point where athletes must have an expert, working on their behalf, monitoring the media and overseeing how their name and image is being presented to the public. There are, of course, different levels of celebrity that pro athletes reach. But from the [...]

As there appears to be little doubt among sports media and public relations experts that Tiger Woods’ silence has increased the already severe damage to his name and reputation, his sponsors seem to be split on whether to continue its support of the world’s most well-known athlete or to cut ties and hide. Of Woods’ major endorsement deals to this point: • Accenture has flat out dropped him • Gillette, TAG Heuer and Gatorade have suspended its ads and stated they are reevaluating the relationship • Nike and EA Sports has stated it is standing by him So with such [...]

As we reach Day 7 of Tigergate – the bizarre early morning car crash Tiger Woods was involved in that was apparently triggered by a domestic dispute – the consensus seems to be that Woods is mishandling the public relations side of the incident. Both the media and general public perception, to this point, have been very critical of Woods’ reluctance or refusal to address the situation publicly. And they’re right! Woods has issued a pair of vague statements on his Web site regarding the incident. The first statement acknowledged the car accident while the next statement, three days later, [...]