Callaway Golf Advert

[wanttokickoffbutcant]

Has anyone seen the Callaway Golf - Good Good advert? I am totally bewildered how anyone thought it was a good idea to release it.

Callaway have released a pretty weak statement apologising.

Their apology statement demonstrates exactly why it was approved in the first place. And perhaps their view of what resonates with their target market.

I also thought the apology was not sufficient but with such a huge company and normally extremely polished marketing this is such a mis-step that it beggars belief.

I saw this theory online which seems to be the only logical explanation (other than rampant misogyny) for every single layer of scrutiny dropping the ball on this one:

”Here's a riddle:
You are a decision maker for a golf brand that is doing what Google describes as an "aggressive repurchase" of their own shares. You have to figure out a way to reduce public opinion of your brand in order to reduce the share price. But you have to do it in a way that doesn't upset your target audience. What sort of ad do you make?

Hint: your target audience is totally comfortable with misogyny.”

I work in golf marketing and it blows my mind, how many people were involved in this and didn’t deem it a problem. It is of course a male dominated industry, but STILL. I wonder who was sidelined for raising a concern during the process.

Both companies have really fucked themselves; a mealy mouthed apology statement days later is meaningless. The amount of golfers I know who have chucked all of their Calloway gear is amazing.

On another note, the millions of men commenting on it on social media saying women can’t take a joke is…tragically just about as I would have expected.

They have a marketing team of over 70 people in the US - hard to think that all of them could have thought this was OK. I expect the head of marketing will be gone shortly.......

And the further statement doesn't help much but cut all ties with Good Good

And they’ve pledged to donate $1 million to organisations working to prevent violence against women. Serious fk-up though and a very odd marketing move.

Oh my. Think you’ve hit the nail on the head Ginger.

What a complete shit show.
Golf has historically been steeped in misogyny.
Think I read of a golf club that bore the sign on the door, “No women or dogs”.
Think that was in the 70s.

I came looking to see if this was being talked about; and this makes a lot of sense.