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08 Dec 2010 10:38

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Biz: Bourbon’s unholy union with golf, faucets will finally end

  • Fun fact of the day: The company that makes Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Knob Creek, and a bunch of non-bourbon liquor has significant interests in two other types of business. One is golf equipment (most notably Titleist) and the other is home improvement (you know them from Moen faucets and Master Lock locks). If this sounds like a absolutely idiotic set of business interests for one company to have, activist investor William Ackman agrees with you, and is convincing the corporate parent, Fortune Brands, to split up these interests. (Ackman is also the driving force behind a who’d-a-thunk-it merger of Borders and Barnes & Noble which was proposed this week.) All this will lead up to an eventual sale of the Jim Beam brand, which ShortFormBlog is interested in buying. See, because online publishing and bourbon go together so well. (Flickr photo comes from our not-really-friend nez, who owns a bottle of Jim Beam.) source

22 May 2010 14:33

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Culture: Tiger Woods’ potential divorce looking like most expensive thing ever

  • $750 million divorce; Elin may not want to stay silent source

08 Apr 2010 11:00

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Culture: Avant-garde film or Nike commercial? Tiger Woods ad a bit odd

  • If you can’t get rid of him, might as well traumatize him. Woods, who lost his beloved father a couple of years ago, gets to hear his voice asking the kind of questions one in Woods’ situation might not want to hear. It’s a vaguely brilliant move on Nike’s part, but on Tiger’s, it doesn’t really help him.

16 Mar 2010 11:46

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11 Mar 2010 10:33

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Culture: Guess who’s returning to golf? That’s right, Tiger Woods

  • Ari Fleischer has been brought in to help ease his return. Smart move. The New York Post is reporting that the sex-scandal-laden golfer will be making his return to the links on March 25, just in time for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Fleisher, by the way, is the guy who helped rehab Mark McGwire’s image by having him announce the whole steroids thing. Oh, and George W. Bush’s former press secretary (which means he’s qualified). He may be the smartest PR move Tiger’s ever made. source

19 Feb 2010 10:59

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19 Feb 2010 10:49

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Culture: Tiger Woods talks today, but golf journalists won’t be there

  • I cannot stress how strongly our board felt that this should be open to all media and also for the opportunity to question Woods. The position, simply put, is all or none. This is a major story of international scope. To limit the ability of journalists to attend, listen, see and question Woods goes against the grain of everything we believe.
  • Golf Writers’ Association of America president Vartan Kupelian • Regarding this morning’s Tiger Woods press conference, which we plan to cover the crap out of in a few minutes. He isn’t allowing questions, he’s controlling the flow of information, and he’s really hurting his cause. Tiger’s handling of the whole situation is pretty deplorable, we think, from a PR standpoint. The timing – during the Olympics – is suspect. source
 

17 Feb 2010 14:56

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31 Dec 2009 11:13

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Biz, Culture: Why AT&T shouldn’t have dropped Tiger Woods

  • image Tiger Woods went from being seen as a golden boy to a &*^#-up in short order. Just like AT&T, thanks to the iPhone fiasco.
  • coverage Unlike AT&T, you can’t get away from Tiger Woods network coverage. Just sayin’. Also, AT&T shouldn’t be dropping things. source

15 Dec 2009 11:04

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Culture: Golf writers admit to being clueless about Tiger Woods

  • Everywhere I go these days, people who know what I do for a living keep asking the same question: Did you have any idea this was going on? I smile and sheepishly shake my head: No, I did not, never even a whiff.
  • Washington Post golf writer Leonard Shapiro • Discussing how the golf press missed the Tiger Woods story pretty badly. Why’s that? Simply put, they rarely dealt with him off the golf course, and when they did, it was during carefully vetted 10-minute interviews. Shapiro asked his industry colleagues if they had a hint of Woods’ private life, and none of them did. Surprising, to say the least, especially since these were the guys that put Woods on a pedestal all these years. source