There is a fair amount of cynicism surrounding yesterday’s Tiger Woods apology, which to be frank I don’t understand. His speech did get off to a shaky start but it was thorough, genuine and appeared to make an impact.
The pace and length of the apology was also just right – using the word ‘sorry’ more than once, but not diminishing its importance by repeating it.
Also admirable was that he did NOT use the apology as a launch pad for other announcements about his career. He referred to the ex-sponsors that dropped him as ‘friends’ (a really nice touch) thereby ensuring the attention was centred his choices and behaviour – not on other people.
Woods came across as vulnerable, shaken and genuine. Woods appeared appropriately upset and this will go far to rehabilitating his public image.
I’ve posted about Woods in December and the future of sports sponsorship before. The only thing strange about his statement is timing. It is now well over 60 days since the story reached its zenith. A public apology was necessary for his family, golf as a sport and the Woods sponsorship empire.
There is clearly a commercial dimension to last Friday’s 13-minute statement. So if we are talking business, I wonder whether waiting 60+ days was wise.
Would we tolerated this sort of delay from other high profile brands or people?
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