Ever since the Tiger Woods story broke, we’ve been watching it from a communications perspective: How Tiger communicates, what he says when, and whether or not he’s handling this crisis right. We blogged about it last week (you can see that post here).
And, since it broke, we’ve also noticed something really eerie: for someone who talks to the press a lot, who relies on his public image for income (endorsements, public appearances, things outside of golf) — Tiger Woods has really bungled this crisis.
Then there’s David Letterman.
Remember his admission of guilt — for what would appear to be similar “transgressions” — on his TV show?
We reached out to some of our smart contacts in the Communications world to ask why David Letterman emerged from his story relatively unscathed — and Tiger’s story appears to keep going and going, putting his endorsement deals and his status as the first “Billion-Dollar Athlete” in serious jeopardy.
An About-Face of Character?
Gary Unger, Creative Genius, @garyunger on Twitter, says that when image doesn’t match reality, reporters and the public look for more:
“My initial thoughts are that Letterman has been known to be an @ss throughout the years. Recently his rants on Sarah Palin showed him to be ‘not very nice’ as far as continuing to pick on someone who lost. Not good form for the most part. (But now that Palin is back in the spotlight I think she’s fair game). And previously with Bush, Misc. sports stars, some movie stars. But more notably he was called out years ago for his philandering. I believe his wife now was his live in girlfriend for about 10 years. And he had multiple girlfriends at the same time. So Letterman’s character is ‘old news.’
Now Woods is a different story, he’s been projecting this squeaky clean image all these years. Great relationship with his dad and mom. Wasn’t photographed at strip clubs, buying drugs, or even having temper tantrums. And then all of a sudden this accident and some ‘weird’ parts to the story. Then Woods went into hiding. Not a good idea since reporters can smell the ‘weird’ and want to reconcile the weird part of the story to reality. Woods who is likely at base character a nice guy did what nice guys do, they try to stay out of the spotlight when they do something embarrassing and see that they went off the path and want to get back on the correct path.
The difference between the two: Letterman came right out and said it to America and that took the initial sting out of the issue. Reporters don’t have the ’scoop’ and now can only report, not ‘find.’ Woods gave the sharks what they live for, the scoop. Not only that Woods is not talking, Letterman talked to whoever wanted to talk about it.
Letterman: ‘I’m an @ss, what are you going to do about it’
Woods: ‘uh….’”
Avoid the Phrase “No Comment” at All Costs
Rachel Kay (@rachelakay on Twitter), from Rachel Kay Public Relations (whose blog is called CommuniKaytrix), on Tiger’s “no comment,” thoughts she first shared right after the story broke:
“When we take clients through media training, one of the first rules we teach is to never say ‘no comment.’ The idea is that ‘no comment’ is essentially an admission of guilt. Whether or not it really is, ‘no comment’ can leave people feeling like they are uninformed, misinformed or that a concern is being disregarded. As the investigation into the accident heats up, what was concern for Tiger seems to be shifting to a feeling of what is Tiger not telling us?”
Get Out in Front, NOW.
Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich Public Relations, and author of the Spin Sucks blog:
“David Letterman got out in front of his ’situation,’ he told people what happened, what he did, and he made it a non-story. Media talked it about it maybe two days and then got bored with the story because there wasn’t any dirt to dig up. With Tiger, just like what you blogged about last week, if he’d gotten out in front of the story (even 24 hours later) and was honest, no one would be digging up all of his mistresses.
This is crisis PR 101. Describe the situation, be honest, apologize, say what you’re going to do to fix it, and live your life. When it becomes a story is when you lie, when you avert questions, and when there clearly is something people want to find out to bring you down.”
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I think you could argue that way in which Letterman broke his news on his show was strange (certainly awkward), but the manner in which he delivered the news was secondary. The fact that he ‘broke’ the news and controlled the message was the most important aspect. It takes the air of a situation when you tell it all and tell it first.
The other ‘pr advantage’ (for lack of a better description) is that Letterman was the victim of an extortion case. Letterman, the women, and all the families were dragged into this. That registered immediate sympathy. So you combine these two factors — and the legs to the story got short, very quickly.
Tiger is a completely different situation. It’s entirely self inflicted, it has bizarre aspects and new evidence emerges every day. He can never ‘get ahead’ of this story. That ship sailed weeks ago.
So what should he do? At this point, it really depends on what Tiger envisions as the primary objective: reclaiming his former family life or his former career trajectory. Unfortunately they don’t necessary move along the same time line. He needs to get right with his family. Until that happens, he can’t sit down with Barabara or Oprah and do the mea culpa.
The good news – at least from a career standpoint – this may make Tiger more popular with golf fans. He is now human. He has been humbled. If it warms him to the public and gives him perspective, it may make him something he never has been: actually likeable.
Time will tell.
Great points, John…
Agree that career vs family are way different paths; folks like ESPN’s Rick Reilly are calling for Tiger to go on Oprah in a hot second. And say what? I agree it’s too too early.
Thanks for the comment!
Saw your post through Twitter – I’ve never been here before, but this is a great piece!
I’m a senior in college and we talked about this in my Integrated Marketing Communications class. We all agreed that from now on, Tiger should be completely honest. I agree that he “gave the sharks what they live for” – yikes. Letterman got away with it because he left no speculation. There was nothing to talk about! But Tiger handled this so awkwardly. He barely said anything, and then he apologized all over his website to his wife and family – but for what? the media went nuts.
At first I thought when he had one mistress that it was an unfortunate situation – I mean, one of the biggest causes of divorce is infidelity. But I have to disagree with the poster above. Now that so many women have come forward, I think this situation shows that he ISN’T human. He did a very bad thing, and knew it. It is no longer a mistake after so many people. It’s voluntary. But maybe that’s just me!
Samantha,
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, “Tiger handled this so awkwardly” pretty much sums it up!
And now he’s retired from golf…indefinitely. This could have been managed. One of two things needs to happen now: He needs new handlers because they haven’t been advising him well OR he needs new handlers because he’s not listening to his current ones and they’re going to fire him.
It’s perplexing, isn’t it?
Sadly, makes it seem that the wife and kids charade was all done for effect — perfect golfer, perfect family man, makes him more lovable.
Here’s hoping Mickelson dominates.
Live by the public, die by the public.
A truly bungled affair, no pun intended. Letterman was probably fortunate, ironically, to have someone leaving him odd packages in his car because now he gets to look like a victim, too. I realize that’s rather tongue-in-cheek but I do think (much like the above commenter) that this gave him a certain edge over Tiger’s situation. Also, he, being on television nightly, has far, far less opportunity to avoid the glare of the spotlight so it was probably best to ‘take it on the chin’, so to speak.
I tend to think that an straight up apology is the way to go. Mainly because when the world already knows what you did, admitting it seems like a small concession that can only gain you some self-awareness points. Though, honestly, not being in PR, my opinion comes from personal interaction. I do think his disappearance from golf will make his return quite the hero’s welcome back.
-R.
Thanks, R.
Regarding the “hero’s welcome” though, he’ll get one of two welcomes, IMHO, but not both. Either he conquers his personal demons and saves his marriage and we can see through any BS, so he’ll be welcomed back into the club of “good family guys.” Or he’ll fess up, decide his real lifestyle is the one he wants to lead, and starts kicking some serious ass on the golf course, personal life be darned.
Not both, though. We won’t give him the benefit of the doubt.