Gatorade Drops Tiger Woods
PepsiCo unit joins AT&T, Accenture in terminating sponsorship deals with troubled golfer
Feb 26, 2010
- David Gianatasio Gatorade today became the latest company to end its sponsorship deal with troubled golf icon Tiger Woods.Gatorade, a unit of PepsiCo, had already pulled its Tiger Woods-branded sports drink in November, and at the time said it had made the decision to do so before the athlete's Nov. 27, 2009 car accident and extramarital affairs became global headline news.The value of Woods' deal with Gatorade was not disclosed, though some sources have estimated it in the $100 million range over the course of five years. He inked the pact amid much fanfare in 2007.So far, Accenture and AT&T have dropped Woods entirely. Others, such as P&G's Gillette and Tag Heuer, have pulled ads featuring the golfer, but have to some extent left the door open to future dealings with Woods.Nike has been his staunchest supporter.Woods on Feb. 19 issued a much-hyped televised public apology for his actions, but it had no immediate impact on public opinion.Just this week, a plurality of respondents to a Rasmussen Reports poll said they believed Woods' public apology last week was sincere. Unfortunately, a majority still had an unfavorable opinion of him.Forty-one percent said they thought Woods's apology was "sincere," while 28 percent thought it wasn't and the rest weren't sure. Meanwhile, 12 percent said they had a "very favorable" impression of him, with another 24 percent having a "somewhat favorable" view. Thirty-two percent had a "somewhat unfavorable" and 19 percent a "very unfavorable" impression. Rasmussen noted that Woods' favorable total is unchanged since mid-December, while his unfavorable total has risen slightly.
This article deals with the many sponsorships that Pro Golfer Tiger Woods has lost since his personal life came to public knowledge. This article plays into social currency of the public to want to be aware of what is happening to him since his car accident. This article interested me becuase of how many deals Tiger had with so many companies to advertise their product and now because of something in his personal life that has nothing to do with his ability to sell products all of the sponsors are dropping him. Also the amount of money that he is loosing out on now is insane. Not as if Tiger doesent have millions upon millions already saved but the gatorade deal alone was estimated to be in 100 million range. So does the media define the norms in society? the media certainly has done alot to ruin tiger woods good name and social currency drives the common viewer to want to know more about what is going on with him so they must turn to the media. If the media has nothing good to say about Tiger Woods than thats the impression the viewer will most likely hold even if Tiger is doing his best to make up for the wrongs he did.
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