Earl Woods Was Talking About Himself, Not Tiger in Nike Commercial

The new Nike Tiger Woods ad with his father’s voice in it has generated a ton of buzz. That’s probably exactly the way the swoosh wanted it — the more talk about their product the better. The one obvious question for most viewers was how they got Earl Woods’ voice in there considering Tiger’s dad has been dead since 2006. Well Nike used an interview Earl gave as part of a 2004 Tiger documentary “Tiger: The Authorized DVD Collection” for the sound bite. Here’s the context via Sports by Brooks and ABC News:

In the original context, Earl was not talking to Woods, but about the golfer’s mother Kultida. …
Earl’s full quote in the film is: “Authoritarian. Yea, Tida is very authoritative. She is very definitive. ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what you’re thinking was, I want to find out what your feelings are and did you learn anything?”

Earl then adds, “So, we were two different types but we co-existed pretty well.”

So there you have it, Earl Woods was talking about himself, not Tiger in that now infamous soundbite. People don’t seem to care because it fit so well. Tiger even felt that way saying, “I think it was very apropos. I think that’s what my dad would say. It’s amazing how my Dad could speak to me from different ways even though he’s long gone. He’s still helping me. I think any son who has lost a father who meant so much in their life, I think they would understand the spot.” Tiger knows the commercial quote was b.s. but still gets people to buy into it. Of course he did — they never betrayed him so why would he betray them?

Sources:
Nike Ad: What Earl Was Actually Talking About [Sports by Brooks]
Tiger Woods Ad Ripped Audio from 2004 Documentary [ABC]