A Classic For All Time

Gillette had one classic statement yesterday in the Tiger Woods saga. They said they were pulling his ads in order to keep with his wish "for privacy." They said they were helping him take "a lower profile." Double-speak at its finest.

Part of that may, of course, be true. As long as people keep seeing Tiger in ads, they will continue to think about him. In continuing to think about him they will be reminded of the past two weeks with revelation and scandal building on revelation and scandal. So to pull his ads will help get him out of the spotlight.

It will also help Gillette keep its own image as Brand Tiger Woods goes into hiatus.

It no longer surprises me when big name celebrities in all walks of life end up like this. I continue to be surprised that the news media and the general "public" reaction is one of shock. We were watching a program on Washington, D.C. scandals the other evening on one of the cable stations. A large section of it was concerned with J. Edgar Hoover who kept a very detailed and very large file of information about just about every legislator, politician, etc. No one was safe. Which probably means that no one was innocent.

Including Hoover himself, no doubt.

In any case, I congratulate Gillette and their PR department for a truly classic response for all time.