If you thought “cancel culture” was behind us, think again.
The seemingly never-ending saga of Good Good Golf’s now-deleted ad has taken yet another more ridiculous turn Thursday afternoon. For some background, Good Good has one of the largest YouTube channels in the golf space and has been enormously popular with younger demographics. They’ve quickly built themselves into a significant brand in golf, including a successful retail operation and partnerships with major club manufacturers, the Golf Channel and now even a PGA Tour event sponsorship.
Or, had built themselves.
GOOD GOOD ISSUES CONTRADICTORY APOLOGY FOR SINCE-DELETED GOLF AD SHOWING A MAN SHOVING A WOMAN TO THE GROUND
In order to promote the release of its co-branded driver with Callaway, Good Good briefly released an online ad that featured one of the company’s founders, Garrett Clark, appearing to shoulder check a woman to the ground. The ad, which was very poorly conceived and executed, immediately came in for immense and well-deserved criticism. While it was meant to be a parody of the movie “Obsession,” it looked and felt viscerally bad, and the image of a man knocking down a woman should obviously never have been approved or released.
The fallout though, has been extreme and hyperbolic. Several major retailers, like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, the PGA Tour Superstore and reportedly some Target stores, pulled Good Good merchandise off the shelves. The scheduled release of their “Big Break x Good Good” television show was postponed after Golf Galaxy wanted to pull their title sponsorship.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, freshly over from the NFL, an organization known for its impeccable handling of domestic violence, said he was disappointed with how the initial apology was handled and hinted that the aforementioned event coming up this fall may not take place under the “Good Good” name.
But the biggest, and most absurd blow, came Thursday afternoon when Callaway Golf issued a lengthy statement announcing that they had severed ties with Good Good effective immediately. Seriously.
After explaining that they have “listened and reflected deeply on the hurt and disappointment caused by the video we reposted” and that they spoke to individuals who had “personal experiences related to violence against women,” the statement condemns “violence against women” as unacceptable and reiterates that it “should never be trivialized, normalized, or used as entertainment.”
They then announce how they’re handling it, with three main outcomes.
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“Callaway has ended its relationship with Good Good, effective immediately,” the statement says.
It then explains that their “content review process was not comprehensive enough,” and they have taken “appropriate internal corrective actions and significantly strengthened our approval procedures to help ensure this does not happen again.”
Callaway will also commit “$1 million to support organizations working to prevent violence against women, provide resources to survivors, and advance education and awareness efforts.”
Finally, they say that “These actions do not undo the harm caused or excuse our role in it. We sincerely apologize to everyone who was hurt, disappointed, or offended by this incident,” and reaffirm their commitment to making golf a welcoming place for all.
Here’s the problem with this statement: it’s an absurd overreaction. Obviously, violence against women is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. The issue, in this instance, is that it has frequently been “used as entertainment” by other brands with little critical reception. A popular Snickers commercial depicted Betty White getting tackled on a muddy football field. One Reebok ad featured a football player tackling office workers, including a woman. Does that mean Snickers and Reebok condone domestic violence? Of course not.
Nor does this ad mean Good Good condones domestic violence. Or that they do not believe women belong in golf. One of the company’s side channels launched not too long ago is “Good Good Girls,” giving a group of young women an opportunity to build their own YouTube brand.
Some sports leagues treat accusations or even charges of actual domestic violence less seriously than this. Which is the real problem, not a poorly thought out ad. Focus on criticism of the NFL for how it handles legitimate accusations. But of course, that would never happen, because the NFL can do no wrong.
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Then, later Thursday afternoon, the PGA Tour announced that Good Good had pulled out of their sponsorship of the upcoming event scheduled for November.
Again, this hyperbolic reaction is a perfect example of the performative cancel-culture world that many believed was behind us. And we know it’s performative because none of the other big brand names involved — the PGA Tour, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy and the PGA Tour Superstore — have announced any plans to drop Callaway products from their companies, despite the club manufacturer being the one to give final approval for the ad’s release.
If this, again, very bad ad is so horrific, so monstrous that it requires all this, why are there no consequences for Callaway? Sure, they’re donating money, which is great. Victims of domestic violence should be supported and are often desperate for resources to escape their circumstances. But why not pull their drivers out of Golf Galaxy if they’re now so inextricably linked to domestic violence?
Not to mention all these companies are run by corporate executives who have little issue with male athletes playing sports against women, where those same young girls they claim to care about are put at serious risk of injury.
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It can’t be repeated enough, this ad should not have been released. It was poorly conceived and poorly executed, and the “Obsession” parody was an inexplicable marketing choice. Should it result in the permanent expulsion of Good Good from public life? No, of course not.
Especially since Callaway is seemingly skipping away into the sunset, as giving them actual consequences would hurt the bottom lines of the PGA, Dick’s and so on too much to be tolerated.
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