Just days after Tiger Woods regained his status as world No. 1 by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Nike has capitalized on his success by unleashing this controversial image into the social sphere.
LA-based sports marketing guru David Carter told USA Today:
The tagline will reinforce both people who support Tiger or are put off by him. For some people, this will be seen as another case of an athlete who doesn’t understand how a big part of society views what he’s done.
Nike has defended the action, spokesperson Beth Gast told the Daily News:
When asked about his goals such as getting back to number one, he has said consistently winning is the way to get there. The statement references that sentiment and is a salute to his athletic performance.
Tiger is slowly rebuilding his image, nearly three years after his rampant infidelities came to light. He’s currently dating skier Lindsay Vonn, and judging by his performance on the course on Monday, things are looking up for Tiger.
On the Nike side, it seems ironic that a company forced to clean its image of Oscar Pistorius so recently would espouse such a philosophy.