A Dallas firm specializing in celebrity research and promotion has empiric data showing Tiger’s fall as a trusted pitchman to be the fastest and worst in history. From the article:
“Tiger Woods may still be the world’s greatest golfer, but almost no one wants to be him or trusts him or likes him. His value as an advertising pitchman is pretty much nonexistent….it uses the Davie Brown Index, which tracks and ranks precisely how the public feels about 2,400 celebrities. It ranks how trustworthy, influential, appealing and trendy we find big names….The latest poll, taken on Dec. 15, placed Woods at 2,252 out of 2,400 in appeal, 1,681 as an effective pitchman and 2,161 in trustworthiness….”We tracked Michael Phelps before the Olympics, during the Olympics, after the Olympics and then after bong-gate,” Chown says. “We’ve never seen a celebrity have such a dramatic rise and then a flameout back to reality.”
Phelps ranked No. 1 in endorsement value right after his incredible performance in Beijing. Now he languishes at 530th.
Before Woods, the worst fall from marketing grace was Mel Gibson after his anti-Semitic tirade in 2006. He disappeared from the top 10 and now ranks 74th overall and 1,935 in endorsement value.
Before the scandal broke, Woods was in a stratosphere that few people can match.
That’s why public opinion turned so vehemently against him, Chown says. “People feel betrayed. He was perceived as a great family man with great values. They feel he’s been misleading them for a decade-plus.”
