I was at the gym today, and whilst on the treadmill, decided to watch bits of the 2010 Australian PGA Championship, playing on One HD. During one of the advert breaks, I saw an absolutely appalling golf advert, where the PGA was promoting intimidation, street mugging, theft, spiteful bullying and general thuggery. I haven’t been able to find a copy of the ad on YouTube, but have typed out the details I recall below.
Edit: Thanks to Shrydar for finding the advert:
Edit: Description updated.
The advert starts with an elderly man walking up to the counter in a small shop. He has a bottle of milk in his hand which he places on the counter, then picks up a PGA Golf magazine from a stand at the counter and puts it next to the milk. He pulls some change out of his pocket, his hand shaking, and puts it on the counter. It’s just silver coins, maybe a couple of dollars worth.
The guy behind the counter tells him it’s not enough money for both, and he has to choose whether to buy the milk or the golf magazine. The elderly man reluctantly chooses the milk, and leaves the store, limping in a laboured walk, head bowed, one hand obviously shaking, possibly from Parkinsons Disease.
A few steps outside the store, he almost runs into someone standing in the way and has to stop suddenly. We see that it’s a tall young golfer. Next to him is a set of golf clubs and caddy. Both the caddy and “golfer” are dressed in golfing clothes and they’re on the path, in the way of the elderly gentleman. Both the caddy and “golfer” are standing there with arms on their hips, a stern look on their face, more like they’re bouncers than golfers.
The elderly gentleman looks up at them with a surprised expression on his face.
The “golfer” reaches out, and calmly takes the bottle of milk out of the elderly gentleman’s hand, still with the same grim expression on his face, he hands it to the caddy who opens it and hands it back. He begins to drink from the open bottle.
Cut to the elderly gentleman, who is looking confused, eyes rapidly blinking in apparent distress.
Cut back to the “golfer” who continues drinking directly from it, whilst maintaining eye contact with the elderly gentleman. The golfer takes another mouthful or so, then lets out a satisfied “ahhh” sound. He hands the bottle back to the elderly gentleman, and whilst still maintaining eye contact, turns around and walks off. The caddy picks up the clubs and follows.
Cut back to the elderly gentleman who is looking very distressed, standing there with the open bottle of milk, other hand still shaking. He looks down at the open milk bottle, then back up, in obvious confusion over why this has happened.
Over the top comes the PGA logo, One HD logo, and a slogan – “Don’t mess with Golf!”.
Seriously PGA, WTF?
In what universe is an advert like that humorous?
Do you really want an advert running on TV which says you promote intimidation, mugging of the elderly (disabled elderly at that), outright theft, spiteful bullying & general thuggery.
Obviously you do, and you should be bloody ashamed of yourselves for it.
And then you dare have a mission statement on your website in which you say you stand for values such as respect, professionalism and integrity?
Seriously?
Hey Coca-Cola – do you really want to sponsor that kind of organisation to run a tournament with your name on it?
Hey OneHD – do you really want to promote that kind of behaviour? How about some decency in your advertising policy?
I’m bloody furious about it.
prk
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