Tiger Woods may not be speaking publicly, but his image is on visible display in the Asheville, NC, area.
In what must be one of the worst cases of bad timing in the history of advertising, The Cliffs Communities posted a series of billboards around Asheville in November that were supposed to drive folks to the gates of High Carolina, site of Woods’ first golf course design in America. To date, The Cliffs has sold a reported 30 lots at an average of $1 million each, about one-third of the total available on the 3,000 acre property.
Woods’ star power was critical to the development’s marketing; Cliffs founder Jim Anthony reportedly paid the now fallen star $20 million to design the High Carolina course. Within a month of the billboards’ debut, Woods made a fateful escape from his own mansion, and his life -– and the Cliffs’ investment -– took a wrong turn.
A fair chunk of revenues from property sales at High Carolina have been used to market Tiger’s connection to the community. The most recent expenditure, for the billboards scattered around Asheville, is turning into the butt of many local jokes. It is hard to imagine they will remain up much longer. A larger than life Tiger rises above the top edge of the billboards, in full-swing follow-through, accompanied by the unfortunate tagline, “See What Inspired Me.”
The Cliffs may be having problems reconciling their huge investment in Woods. As of this morning, a video of the golfer's visit to High Carolina two months ago is still posted at The Cliffs web site, including his comments about how he looked forward to bringing his wife and children to the site. Elin Woods was reported this morning to be seeking a divorce.
Local artists have been inspired to contribute their own takes on the Tiger tale. Below, local cartoonist David Cohen comments on how inextricably tied The Cliffs is to Woods. In another flight of fancy, a photographer combined the Woods billboard with another for Motel 6 to make a slightly different kind of statement. You can see that image at http://www.inform.com/photo/2007366.
Asheville editorial cartoonist David Cohen, who draws regularly for the Asheville Citizen-Times and is a member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, can be contacted at
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