Legal Niches

How Much Longer Can EA Stand by Tiger?

By pete_gallagher

As the sordid details of Tiger Woods' personal life continue to unfold in the national media the question arises: will Electronic Arts stick by their videogame cover boy?

While EA issued a statement a week ago saying that it wouldn't dump Woods, the media frenzy surrounding Tiger's transgressions continues to grow and more information is revealed seemingly everyday, all of which could influence EA's stance.

A Forbes column contains the opinion that Tiger's days are numbered as an EA spokesman, going so far as to say that 'Tiger is done as a corporate pitchman' overall, regardless of what companies sticking by him are currently saying now.

The columnist also believes that the Tiger scandal will force companies to do full diligence on a spokesperson before choosing them:

…companies that throw big money at athletes are going to do a lot of research on them to make sure they are not phony (or make risk-adverse decisions based on information they do have) and funnel their endorsement dough at popular athletes whose image will not blow up.

Some of these athletes may not even be among the best in their field, but they will typically be in global sports and not be ticking time bombs.

Forbes writes that no other golfers carry enough buzz among consumers to fill Tiger's shoes. Certainly however, EA could find a new PGA pro to build its game around if events warranted. Phil Mickelson might be the perfect choice, though he may need to work on his fist pump to take it to Tiger's level.

What do you think? Should EA keep Tiger on board?

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on December 11, 2009 (boomark / email).