Tag Heuer recently dropped Tiger Woods as an endorser of its timepieces
More bad news for Tiger Woods on the popularity and possibly financial fronts. Tag Heuer may be the most recent sponsor to drop the former ace from its roster of celebrity shills, but a new poll could spell doom and gloom for Woods’ prospects as an endorser going forward.
The results, which ranked Woods as the sixth most unpopular American heavyweight, were from a recent survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, who voted Betty White as America’s sweetheart, according to lpsos, a global market research firm.
Why should Tiger — or anyone, for that matter — care about such opinions? Golf fans likely won’t give them a moment’s consideration. Team Tiger, on the other hand, may study the outcome a bit more carefully since it could foretell the struggling golfer’s future earnings potential.
Possible sponsors, it seems, may peruse the reactions for bigwigs who can convince fans to buy what they’re selling. White’s standing “as America’s favorite and most trusted personality,” for example, is the luminary “whose endorsement of a company would be most likely to drive business,” said lpsos.
Tiger, sixth on the poll’s list of the the 10 least-likable notables with 42%, comes in as more scorned than raving anti-Semitic actor Mel Gibson (33%); bombastic real estate mogul and golf course developer Donald Trump (31%); and the only other sports star on the most-unpopular list, LeBron James (29%). Women tended to find Woods, Charlie Sheen, Paris Hilton, and Britney Spears more odious than did the men who participated in the survey, according to the polling numbers.
On the bright side for the 33rd-ranked golfer in the world, the findings claimed he had more fans than Hilton (60%) and Sheen (52%).
Respondents rating stars as trustworthy offered similarly poor grades for Woods. Indeed, the findings were “nearly identical” to those slotting the 10 most out-of-favor personages, lpsos noted.
“Sheen is rated below average by 65%, followed by [Britney] Spears (60%), Woods (57%), [Arnold] Schwarzenegger and [Kanye] West (both 55%), [Kim] Kardashian (47%), Gibson (45%), Trump (44%) and Kobe Bryant (40%),” said lpsos.
A majority of voters suggested they would trust companies less if Sheen (54%) or Hilton (53%) endorsed their products. “Relatively large proportions also said so of Schwarzenegger and Spears (42% each), Woods (40%) and Gibson (34%),” according to lpsos.
If you’d like to see where your favorite stars ranked, check out the complete listing here.
