17602: More Amateurish Clubbing Of Callaway And Good Good Golf.

 

MediaPost published yet another perspective swinging at Callaway and Good Good Golf for their misogynistic marketing.

The author insisted the campaign “needs to be studied by anyone in the ad industry.”

Um, not really. There’s nothing new about the cultural cluelessness, circumstances, or root causes displayed by Callaway and Good Good Golf. Unfortunately, the concept and execution fortify a major stereotype about golf; ie, the game is dominated by White men.

The author’s recommendation involves four questions that should have been asked before greenlighting the concept.

Um, not really. Questions should have been asked and answered when writing the brief. And the concept should have been screened against the brief.

Contrary to the author’s contention that the scenario says something about creator campaigns, the issue is more basic.

First, experience, discipline, and mastery of craft are critical for success—it has nothing to do with the titles of anyone behind the production. In today’s arena, creator does not translate to creative director.

Second, insular and exclusive minds generate ignorant ideas. Full stop.

What The Good Good-Callaway Fallout Should Teach Brands About Creator Campaigns

By Kari O’Neill, Op-Ed Contributor

Good Good’s Callaway campaign, which features Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark running down and aggressively tackling female professional golfer Alexis Miestowski to stop her from grabbing his new Good Good-Callaway driver, needs to be studied by anyone in the ad industry.  

This is a profound example of a mistake in creative strategy. The allure of content creators is huge, but brands need to remain hyper-aware of what concepts are strategically sound for their brand. 

What Good Good said inspired the campaign. Good Good may defend the ad by saying it was a parody of the movie Obsession, where the main character buys a supernatural toy that grants him his wish to make his crush fall in love with him — to the point of unsettling horror. Good Good probably stood up in front of executives and claimed that’s how good the driver is — that the audience would be obsessed with it.   

Unfortunately, the response has been the exact opposite, with many calling out its use of domestic violence against women for entertainment. Amidst the backlash, even Clark admitted, it was “a super dumb ad concept, terrible ad in general. Not the greatest idea.”  

Here’s what Callaway needed to ask Good Good before green-lighting the concept.   

Is this pop culture reference relevant for the brand?  

One clear blindspot for Good Good was likely assuming what is popular in its own social circles may not be relevant to Callaway’s audience. Asking if Obsession was in the movie zeitgeist or something the masses would relate to should have been the primary question posed of the concept. Would the ad still resonate if the audience didn’t know about Obsession? Given that Obsession was released in May 2026 nationally and in the summer, a key risk is easily seen that the ad’s reference back to the movie likely would not be top of mind. 
 
Does this reinforce or add to a brand’s story?  

Additionally, a parody can be extremely effective, but only if translated conceptually well from the original creative into an exciting, authentic brand story. In Good Good’s concept, would the target audience see themselves in the story of the parody? Do most people see themselves in a horror film? Probably not. That, in and of itself, should have killed the concept. 
 
Is this the right feeling for the brand?  

Is this ominous feeling the right one Callaway wants people to walk away with after being introduced to this new driver? While the sound design itself clearly is inspired by horror films, it’s clear that the music alludes to harm while being played over an image of a woman being tackled to the ground. Don’t let an internally-focused haze mask the inappropriateness of the concept.  

Who has the power in the story?  

Even if this driver is targeted only to a male audience (which it probably isn’t, but let’s pretend), why did the person tackled have to be a woman? Strategically, what’s the advantage in that versus a man? The answer: absolutely nothing and worse. The hovering over her body while threatening her takes it even further from the corner of potentially funny to utterly unacceptable. 

Because cancel culture is always a risk in the world of creators and brands, brands need to be aware of power dynamics, whether its gender, race, or sexual orientation, among many others.   

The fallout certainly is not what anyone intended or wanted. According to Front Office Sports, three people, including Good Good’s vice president of brand marketing, Jeffrey Lefkovits have been fired. Good Good has lost its sponsorships from Callaway, its PGA Tour event title sponsorship, and its Golf Channel show, Big Break x Good Good.   

Dick’s Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy also pulled Good Good merch off shelves. This is a critical lesson for all brands to take a step back and ensure the right questions are being asked of a creator’s concept. Not enough questioning strategically could be the difference between an exciting launch and a brand nightmare.

17593: On Zapping Callaway And Good Good Golf.

Adweek published more seemingly self-promotional schadenfreude from the Chief Marketing Officer of Zappi, who threw her sanctimonious soapbox at Callaway and Good Good Golf for their misogynistic marketing.

The author made one semi-insightful point: “The problem is that the infrastructure hasn’t kept up. Brands are producing more content, across more platforms, with more partners, for more audiences. The old model of heavily researching a few major campaigns wasn’t built for hundreds of smaller decisions.”

This is followed by shameless self-promotion, as the CMO presents Zappi AI services as capable of screening content quickly and efficiently.

There are key flaws in the proposal.

First, the old model never heavily researched a few major campaigns—at least not through a culturally competent lens. Indeed, work was evaluated with an exclusive, predominately White perspective.

Second, AI has already been called out for its cultural cluelessness. The real problem in this area involves technology and algorithms created with an exclusive, predominately White perspective.

Third, the root problem—which Adland has absolutely failed to address for at least 75 years—is the global DEIBA+ issue. That is, White advertising agencies—and companies like Zappi—perpetuate an exclusive, predominately White perspective.

The problem is that the infrastructure is built on systemic racism.

Callaway and Good Good’s Ad Was So Bad, Even AI Audiences Sounded the Alarm

Callaway and Good Good are arguing about approval, but should be arguing about why no process existed to flag the video before it aired

By Nataly Kelly

You know the clip by now. Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark shoves fellow creator Alexis Miestowski to the ground as she reaches for his new Callaway driver. He stands over her and tells her not to touch it.

The ad is gone. So is the partnership. 

Retailers pulled Good Good merchandise, the company withdrew as title sponsor of a PGA Tour event, while Callaway pledged $1 million to organizations working to prevent violence against women in an effort to wash away the controversy. 

And the entire public argument is about approval. Callaway CEO Chip Brewer says the video was produced by Good Good but signed off by Callaway, and that “that approval should have never happened.” 

On Friday morning, Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick broke an 11-year Twitter silence at 3:38 a.m. to accuse Callaway of asking for the ad, approving it, then dropping his company in a “coordinated media blitz.” Asked whether he’d sue, he replied: “Not opposed.”

Both men are addressing the wrong questions. It’s not about who approved the ad; it’s how nobody and no process stopped it before it went live, when the tools to catch the warning signs cost less than the driver they’re selling. 

The story is much bigger than just one terrible ad

We’ve entered a dynamic where brands and creators need each other. Brands need creators to reach communities they can’t, while creators need to monetize their audiences.

That relationship comes with risk, as brands put decades or centuries of hard-earned equity into the hands of culturally nimble third parties, and ask them to translate it for new audiences. That’s inherently risky. It’s also increasingly necessary.

Creators aren’t the problem. The problem is that the infrastructure hasn’t kept up. Brands are producing more content, across more platforms, with more partners, for more audiences. The old model of heavily researching a few major campaigns wasn’t built for hundreds of smaller decisions.

An ad so bad even AI frowned upon it

The frustrating thing about the Good Good ad is that the warning signs weren’t particularly difficult to find. We tested the ad after it was pulled, first with U.S. consumers. It performed significantly below advertising norms on appeal, likelihood to drive behavior, brand fit, relevance, believability, and attention.

More telling was the reaction underneath those scores. Nearly one-third said there was something offensive, unpleasant, or disturbing about the ad. Shock was eight times higher than our norm. 

But let’s assume the Good Good and Callaway teams involved didn’t have the time, resources, or know-how to commission a traditional market research study for one piece of creator content. Fair enough. They at least could have tested the ad with AI.

So that’s what we did at Zappi. We ran the creative past 150 AI synthetic respondents trained on real consumer response data. We had answers back in just minutes. The ad received the lowest possible score (1/5) and even synthetic respondents could spot the warning signs about the content of the ad. Its recommendation, in hindsight, is almost unbearable to read: “Soften or clarify the physical moment so it reads as playful rather than awkward.”

Testing with humans allows you to feel the fire and know exactly how hot it was. But AI was a smoke detector that, if it had only been in place, would have told people to look more closely before the brand equity went down in flames.

Now, to be very clear, AI should never be the cultural arbiter deciding what’s acceptable, but when content moves faster than the infrastructure legacy brands have at their disposal, it can be an incredibly helpful early warning system that tells a human when something deserves a second look. 

What brand leaders should take from this

Who’s at fault here? Everybody involved. Who can learn from it? Marketers. Agencies. All of us.

Creator partnerships and the creator economy aren’t going away. Neither is the pressure to produce more content, faster, for increasingly fragmented audiences.

Brands need creators, and creators need brands. Both need better guardrails, frankly, to cover their own (brand) asse(t)s. 

For brands, those guardrails protect hard-earned equity. For creators, they protect the livelihood and audience they’ve spent years building. The lesson isn’t to slow creator marketing down until it resembles traditional advertising. It’s to build processes capable of moving just as fast as the media they’re meant to govern. And in this not-so-new reality, what the Callaway scandal makes clear is that AI already has an important role to play, but that many brands remain behind the curve.

15074: Granite Links Is Rocking With Whiteness.

This golf resort campaign really reflects the venue’s exclusivity—and doesn’t help golf’s biased reputation either.

13300: Callaway Joins Hip Hop Club.

Advertising Age reported Callaway is seeking to appeal to younger audiences through—you guessed it—hip hop. When advertisers want to generate interest, they turn to Blacks. When advertising agencies want to generate interest, they turn away Blacks.

Hip Hop and Golf? How Callaway Is Swinging for Millennials

As Nike Exits Sport, Callaway Seeks New Ways to Stir Interest Among Young Players

By E.J. Schultz

Who says hip hop and golf don’t mix?

Callaway thinks they can, which is why the golf equipment maker is coming out with a new documentary featuring rapper Scarface. The 10-minute film by Vice Sports—which will debut online in September—is an example of how Callaway is using content on unexpected channels to lure players to a game that is suffering from an image that it is not millennial friendly.

Golf’s woes were laid bare when marketing powerhouse Nike recently announced it was exiting the golf equipment business. That followed news earlier this year that Adidas was looking for buyers for its TaylorMade golf brand. Also, retailer Golfsmith is considering filing for bankruptcy, according to published reports.

“In any sport, you’ve got to get young participation to drive long-term growth,” Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co., recently told Bloomberg News. “You’ve got to have a crop of younger people coming in at 20-, 25-years old who will play the game 20, 40 years. You are not seeing enough of that.”

It is against this backdrop that Callaway is striking content deals aimed at making golf a little more cool and a little less country club. The Vice film will feature Brad Jordan, aka Scarface, getting fit for golf clubs and other equipment at Callaway’s Southern California headquarters and using it on the golf course.

The former Geto Boys member is apparently an avid golfer. “He plays 300 rounds of golf a year, which is a crazy number,” said Harry Arnett, senior VP-marketing and brand management for Callaway. Golf and hip hop “typically wouldn’t go together,” Mr. Arnett conceded. But “Scarface really shows that golf is really a sport that transcends demography and transcends what your normal expectations would be.”

Shattering golf’s stuffy stereotype is also behind Callaway’s partnership with Red Bull Media House, the content arm of the energy drink brand known for its extreme sports positioning. The deal includes an upcoming video series called “Distance Lab” that will feature renowned golf instructor Hank Haney teaching Red Bull athletes, including wakeboarder Steel Lafferty; BMX rider Corey Bohan; and skateboarder Alex Midler. “It has the Red Bull storytelling aesthetic and tone. But we think it will be a cool thing for people to see these conflicting worlds coming together in a different way to look at golf performance,” Mr. Arnett said. “These are athletes that you typically aren’t used to seeing in a golf context, even though they are avid golfers.”

The three-episode series will run on Red Bull’s channels as well as on Callaway TV, a channel the marketer launched earlier this year for Apple TV and Roku. The channel is home to “Callaway Live,” a weekly interview show about golf hosted by Mr. Arnett. The show has included appearances by celebrities such as pop star Adam Levine and business leaders like former Yum Brands Chairman-CEO David Novak.

Callaway is also active on teen-friendly Snapchat. Content has included a video of Ben Roethlisberger hitting golf shots at Heinz Field during the week of the U.S. Open.

The initiatives are aimed at “creating an avenue for a new audience to think about Callaway,” Mr. Arnett said. The preconceived notions people have about the game of golf “were definitely preconceived notions that people had about Callaway,” he added, meaning that it is for rich men.

“There is an affluency to the game that definitely is attractive and has been a foundation to our business,” he added. But “we are extending ourselves to a newer, broader audience,” he added, like people who are “looking for that next passion point activity. And we think golf can be that.”

Golf interest surged in the mid-1990s thanks to the power of Nike-endorser Tiger Woods, leading to an all-time high of 2.4 million beginners taking up the game in 2000, according to the National Golf Foundation. Total participation reached a peak of 30.6 million in 2003, Bloomberg reported, citing figures from the foundation.

But in 2015 participation fell to 24.1 million from 24.7 million the two previous years, according to the foundation’s latest report. There was a silver lining: The number of beginners reached 2.2 million—slightly off the Woods-era peak—and the biggest group of beginners was millennials, the report stated.

Nike announced its golf exit on Aug. 3. While the marketer is getting out of the equipment business—including clubs, balls and bags—the company is “committed to being the undisputed leader in golf footwear and apparel,” according to a statement. Nike’s golf division posted $706 million in revenue for fiscal 2016, which was its worst year since 2011, according to ESPN.

Callaway’s “hard goods” market share—which includes clubs, balls but not apparel or shoes—was 22.4% in the second quarter, up a full percentage point from a year earlier, the company reported.

While Callaway could benefit from Nike’s equipment exit, Mr. Arnett lowered expectations. Nike’s equipment business “represented a pretty small market share percentage, so the direct sales opportunity is probably not one that is so direct to us,” he said. But it “definitely is an opportunity for us to continue to expand as the equipment industry contracts somewhat.”

11399: Golf Channel Is A Putz.

From Advertising Age…

Golf Channel Has an Epic Fail on Anniversary of ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

Tweet, Closer to a Nightmare, Quickly Deleted

By Alex Kantrowitz

In the summer of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. took the steps of the Lincoln memorial and, in front of a crowd of hundreds of thousands, delivered a speech describing his dream of a United States after racism’s demise. Today, exactly 50 years later, the Golf Channel took to Twitter and told its 200,000 plus Twitter followers to “Tweet your ‘golf’ dream,” using the hashtag “#DreamDay.”

“I have a dream that no man, regardless of creed, will ever bogey,” replied one of its followers.

The Golf Channel quickly deleted its tweet. “The tweet in question was not appropriate and was pulled minutes after being posted this morning,” a Golf Channel spokesman said by email. “The original intent was to celebrate this important date in history, and we regret that we failed to meet that standard.”

In an age of real-time marketing, where every brand’s social team aspires to post the next Oreo Super Bowl tweet, some run into the news of the day without regard for context. Not every brand fits every moment, and the Golf Channel learned this the hard way today.

Others took a more tasteful approach to commemorating the speech, which took place in the midst of the massive March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The New York Times, for example, released its August 29, 1963 edition in scrollable format online. (Back then the news was always delivered the next day, although it was at least less vulnerable to disruption by Syrian Electronic Army hackers.)

A click on the pages, which were filled with coverage of the rally and the speech, zooms in on articles. On the right hand side of the screen, you can scroll through the all the day’s articles (including an advertising column, that tells magazines to specialize and stop trying to be “everything to everybody”).

NPR also put its @Todayin1963 Twitter account into overdrive to commemorate the march. The account, a special NPR project, tweets moments from the summer of 1963 as they happened. “For sale at the March on Washington: Hot dogs, soft drinks and other picnic foods,” read one. Another reports: “Folks who can’t find space near Lincoln Memorial are retreating to sit under trees nearby.”

Google used its homepage “doodle” to commemorate the day. A graphic of King speaking to the masses sits above the site’s search bar, with the words of the speech in the background. A click on the doodle takes visitors to the search results for the term: “I have a dream,’ speech.” One of the first results is a YouTube video of the speech, which you can watch the below.

9977: The Male-Only Masters Mess.

The Chicago Tribune offered an opinion on the Masters Tournament and Augusta National Golf Club’s male-only membership policy. Hey, somebody should get a comment from Tiger Woods.

Will ‘she’ don the green jacket?

IBM’s Ginni Rometty reduces the Masters to ‘no comment’

As the Masters Tournament eased into its 76th competition on Thursday — the course looked as impeccable as it ever has — a boorish little smudge crept up again.

Tournament host Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., faces an unusually pesky public relations problem this year. While the club regularly incites, and even thrives on, criticism of its male-only membership policy, the issue is generating particular melodrama due to an important tournament partner.

IBM is one of the Masters’ most dedicated and generous sponsors. As a “thank-you” to the global technology and consulting firm, Augusta National traditionally gives the company CEO membership privileges and, of course, the bodacious green jacket.

Ah, but there’s a problem. IBM has a new CEO and it’s a “she.”

Virginia “Ginni” Rometty, who boasts Chicago roots as a 1979 graduate of Northwestern University’s engineering school, oversees IBM as the company’s first female president and CEO. Her predecessor, Sam Palmisano, told The New York Times she got the job last fall “because she deserved it. … It’s got zero to do with progressive social policies.”

So, what about the Augusta membership?

Despite protests and severed sponsorships over the years, the clubhouse maintains its men-only protocol. Reporters grilled Augusta National Chairman Billy Payne this week during his annual news conference, asking whether the club would make an exception for Rometty. Payne offered “no comment” on JacketGate. Club matters are private, he said.

IBM, too. A spokesman told us the firm would not be discussing the membership issue.

Perhaps Rometty is too busy, and savvy, to respond to an anachronous, obnoxious clubhouse policy that doesn’t impact her life, her company or her employees. Yet IBM was one of several corporate sponsors to pull its television ads from the 1990 PGA Championship, which took place at an Alabama golf course that had white-only membership rules.

At what point do corporate CEOs stop looking the other way?

At the very least, Rometty should consider ending IBM’s deeply embedded relationship with the Masters and Augusta National if they don’t offer to her the same courtesy and respect extended to the CEOs of Exxon Mobil and AT&T, the tournament’s other corporate sponsors, both led by men. Closing ceremonies and the hallowed jacket-donning take place Sunday.

If Rometty is not included, or chooses not to participate, she can take comfort in the fact that she won’t have to wear one of professional sports’ homeliest garments: the Easter-egg-hue, brass-buttoned Masters jacket with a Girl Scout-reminiscent badge fastened to the left breast.

As tradition goes, the donning of the jacket is certainly more noble than the winner of the Indy 500 dribbling through a bottle of milk.

But in case you were wondering, yes, even the Indy 500 allows women to drive.

How radical.

9975: Holier-In-One Than Thou Attitude.

The Gospel According To Luke…? Perfect for the Easter holiday.

From Ads of the World.

7543: PGA Diversity Not An Oxymoron.

Too bad Tiger Woods isn’t available to hype this effort.

PGA TOUR Diversity Internship Program

The PGA TOUR Diversity Internship Program is open to all qualified college students, regardless of ethnicity and is committed to attaining greater diversity within our organization, as well as, the golf industry.

Our internships are designed to expose college students to the business side of golf that supports one of the world's leading sports brands – the PGA TOUR. While a love of the game is certainly appreciated, knowing how to play is not a prerequisite for the internship. Your internship experience will be enhanced by activities and projects that will allow you to gain a full picture of how the PGA TOUR and other golf organizations work together to support our players, charities and events on the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and the Nationwide Tour.

The PGA TOUR has full time, PAID internship positions for the summer & fall in almost every area of the organization. Deadline for applications is February 28, 2010.

Info: http://www.pgatour.com/company/internships.html

7410: Bill Powell (1916-2009).

From nationwide news sources…

‘Made golf a beacon for people of all color’
BILL POWELL | 1916-2009

CANTON, Ohio—Bill Powell, the first African American to build, own and operate a golf course, died Thursday. He was 93.

The PGA of America said Mr. Powell died at Aultman Hospital in Canton following complications from a stroke.

“Bill Powell will forever be one of golf’s most unforgettable American heroes,” PGA of America President Jim Remy said. “Bill made us appreciate the game and each other that much more by his gentle yet firm example.

“He was born with a fire within his heart to build on his dream. In the process, he made golf a beacon for people of all color. The PGA of America is better today because of individuals like Bill Powell.”

In August, Mr. Powell received the PGA Distinguished Service Award, the association’s highest annual honor. In November, he was inducted into the Northern Ohio PGA Hall of Fame.

The grandson of Alabama slaves, Mr. Powell created Clearview Golf Club after returning home following World War II. Mr. Powell worked 18-hour days to support his family and build Clearview. Denied a GI Loan, he found funding from two African-American physicians, and his brother took out a second mortgage on his home.

Mr. Powell went on to carve Clearview out of former dairy farmland in 1946, clearing the land himself. In the process, he broke down racial barriers without fanfare by developing female and youth golf leagues.

Clearview opened its initial nine holes in 1948. Mr. Powell eventually repaid his benefactors to gain full ownership. Clearview is on the National Register of Historic Places and nicknamed “America’s Course.”

“I didn’t build this course for any of the recognition,” Mr. Powell said in his 2000 autobiography, Clearview: America’s Course. “It was a labor of love.”

7072: Who’s Your Caddy?

From The Chicago Tribune…

Ghanaian-American girl finds caddying is path to American dream

Her mother stuck in Ghana, Bolingbrook girl prospers as a caddy

By Dan Simmons
Tribune reporter

In the spring, as Mike Greene trained a new crop of caddies he feared a slow summer ahead for them.

“I was expecting the worst,” said the caddy superintendent at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton. Who, in these dire times, would fork over $90 for a walk around the links and pay an additional $50 for a kid to schlep their clubs?

Among the sea of mostly white boys learning the ropes, he noticed Leanette Pokuwaah, a Ghanaian-American girl with an unlikely caddying background. Her outlook for a big summer didn’t seem so good either.

“I wasn’t sure she was going to make it,” Greene said. “She was very nervous and didn’t know very much about golf.”

That was then. Now, as the summer sun sets and the course’s 160 caddies settle back into school, Greene is marveling at reversals of fortune on both fronts.

His program turned into a rare economic success story this summer, with caddy rounds up 17 percent over last year despite a dip in total rounds played.

“That’s a big surprise,” he said. “To be where we are is huge.”

Greene said the caddies were in the right place at a bad economic time. People were more likely to opt out of vacations this summer and spend a bit on pastimes at home, such as golf. The public course absorbed a steady trickle of former members of expensive private clubs used to having caddies, he said. Nationally, rounds at private courses dipped about 1 percent from last year, while play at public courses was up by about the same, according to Golf Datatech figures.

And the girl who wasn’t supposed to make it? She’s going back to Bolingbrook High School about a thousand dollars richer from a summer that saw her caddy 31 rounds and develop into one of the club’s best rookies.

“She mastered the mechanics of what we do, and now she’s learning the game, learning the nuances of the golf course,” Greene said. “Very few get that in the first year.”

At first, her main problem came in one of caddying’s basic tasks: measuring distance from a golfer’s ball to the hole.

“Calculating yardage in my head is impossible!” she said, arms outstretched in exasperation. “I’m like, I can’t think that fast!”

Golfer Mark Skurla, one of her first clients, said that she joked about the “math exam” on the links, part of what he described as a disarming candor that’s unusual for a “red bib,” or rookie.

“She asked me what I do for a living, which I found very mature,” he said. “Most red bibs are very cowering and shy.”

With Greene’s help, she overcame her yardage struggles and, day-by-day, mastered other job skills.

Which shouldn’t be surprising, given other distances the 16-year-old has traveled.

Such as the distance from first picking up a club a year and a half ago to becoming so addicted she joined her high school golf team and has recently been known to practice chip shots in her bedroom. “I knew I must be passionate,” she said, “otherwise I wouldn’t risk breaking windows.”

Read the full story here.