The Next 12 Months of Tiger Woods' Life. . . PR 101

I am going to depart from my usual format to comment on what Tiger Woods will--or at least should--do over the next 12 months. Is the Woods story critical the study or practice of marketing? Not necessarily, but my wife has told me she is sick of discussing the story with me. So, to feed my addiction to this story, I am hoping there are people out there who share my fascination with this spectacular meltdown of what was once a global brand. This meltdown was further accentuated by news today that El Tigre has been linked to a Canadian doctor currently under investigation for dealing in illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Without further ado, here is what I would advise Tiger if he were my client:

1. Click Here for good advice from Jim Carey. Good PR does not require that he and his wife reconcile. What is does require is that Tiger try and put together a stable environment. If his wife divorces him--as harsh  as that may be--most people can relate to that. But, to lead an out-of-control life that continues to inflict pain on his wife and children will not be acceptable to the public. Find resolution and stability.

2. Tear Up The Prenup: Rumors are that the Elin has already retained divorce council. She also allegedly has a prenup saying that she will only get $5 million if she divorces him now. The best money Tiger could spend is to tear up the prenup and give her $100 million Anything less than that and he will be incentivizing her to:

a. drag him into a highly-contested, very public divorce hearing
b. write a book and drop bombs on his image rehab that will begin in 2010.

He is worth over a billion dollars--mostly from endorsements. It's money well spent, especially if it means his endorsements come back.

3. Let the Dust Settle: He appears to be doing this. You don't want to claim to be a changed man when the last three women in the United States who haven't announced a sexual liason with him finally do so. (Plus this steroids story is going to take several months to come out.) As Tiger's counsel, the trick is going to be getting him to admit all the bombs that are out there waiting to drop.

4. Get Your Story Straight: As with any image rehab, you need a believable reason for behaving like a scoundrel. His story should go something like this: Child star pushed into the limelight too early who didn't know how to handle himself once his father passed. . . The pressure of mega-stardom with a lack of structure and a burgeoning sexual addiction culminated in an out-of-control lifestyle that destroyed his life and deeply hurt his beloved family. . . He paid the ultimate price for this by losing his beloved wife Elin. Now that he is receiving treatment for his addiction. . . blah bluh blah blah blah. . and, oh yeah. . . the doctor who gave him performance enhacing drugs was the result of the constant pressure to be the best. . . blah blah. Speaking of the steroid piece, depending on how the investigation is unfolding and the advice of his attorneys, he may want to get a jump on the story and just admit he took some stuff that "in retrospect, probably was not in keeping in the spirit of true competition."

5. Choose Your Venue: Given the gigantic size of this story, he needs the biggest and most credible outlets out there which would mean "60 Minutes." I would say he should do it following the Super Bowl for the biggest audience, but I think it's likely too soon. In the months following, he should do some public initiative for children with his charitable foundation and do a press tour to promote it. That second press tour should focus on women-friendly venues--Oprah and "The View" (assuming Tiger can resist hitting on Liz Hasselback. . . Hiii-yoooooo!).

6. Win: Everyone loves a winner and his winning will help move the Tiger story line from "Girls Gone Wild" to his ability to persevere and overcome. And winning is the thing he does best.

Assuming that there are not other, weirder stories getting ready to come out (which appears to be a BIG assumption), his 60 minutes spot in the Spring combined with a couple tournament wins by Mid-Summer should assure that Tiger, Inc. will be back in full "shill for every product known to man" mode by 2011.