EA Not Locked into Tiger Woods Brand
Will EA be forced to rebrand their PGA Tour series with a new golf star? After the initial scandal, or scandals rather, EA were supportive of the world's best known golfer. However, as the situation has progressed since then, they've chosen some very careful words to setup distancing themselves in the future.
On December 2 EA said "Our strong relationship with Tiger for more than a decade remains unchanged. We respect Tiger’s privacy, we wish him a fast recovery and we look forward to seeing him back on the golf course." At that point in time he'd only crashed a car and slept with a few woman.
Jump forward 2 weeks and all of a sudden everyone's had an affair with Tiger Woods, or so it seems. His wife's also had enough, and he's taking an indefinite break from golf. The first two make him quite a large liability for EA, and has already resulting in him losing a lot advertising support releasing; more importantly, for EA, he really needs to be active in the sport, seeing how it's a golf game and all.
EA now say: "We respect that this is a very difficult, and private, situation for Tiger and his family. At this time, the strategy for our Tiger Woods PGA Tour business remains unchanged." The key wording of "at this time" suggests that they'll be forced to make a change should the star not return to golf anytime soon and/or if his public reputation does not improve.
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