The key communications strategy last week was clearly Tiger Woods’s press conference to admit adultery and acknowledge his guilt.  Some people said he did well… “I was unfaithful.  I  had affairs.  I cheated.”  But most of his cheerleaders had something to gain from Tiger, such as his sponsors and the PGA that wants him back and playing.  In fact, his press conference was a disaster.  One paper later called it “a sorry performance.”  His confession was too little, too late.  His timing was awful.  In a crisis, sincerity is everything, and it was scripted and forced.  His press conference looked like he was giving the eulogy at a funeral, with his family sitting in the front row, no questions.  Then came the hug from his mother, the ugh hug, where the public cringed, saying, oh this is unseemly.  Women lambasted him, men said, “just play golf, would you?” and his mistresses used this opportunity to read sexy text messages from Tiger saying “you were the best,” and that kind of thing.  So why did he do it?  Because he was losing sponsorships and he had to do it, or so he thought.  But come on.  The timing has to be right, and it can’t look like a funeral, and he has to be sincere.  He failed on all fronts.  He probably should stop the soap opera and act like an adult, which he probably will once he returns from his next round of sex therapy.

The Olympics got off to a tough start when a luge contestant from the country of Georgia, Nodar Kumaritashvili,  lost control of his sled in a training run, popped over a wall, struck a metal poll, and died a few hours later.  That was the first tragedy, but the second tragedy came from the International Luge Federation (ILF) that conducted an exhaustive 12 hour investigation and released a statement that said basically, “it was his fault.”  Nice.  And not really true.  Clearly, the 22-year old World Cup contestant, ranked 44^th in the world, lost control, but the question was why.  The ILF issued the press release that said, “There is no indications that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”  It then proceeded to change the start of the race to a lower down position, build a wall at the spot of the accident, and pad the metal poll.  What then came out was that the ILF has been treating the lugers as crash test dummies.  Speeds have gone from about 70 mph to over 90 mph.  One luger said before the crash, “We are just little lemmings thrown down the track and we’re crash test dummies.”  One turn is called the “50-50” because that’s your chance of coming out without crashing.  The ILF, by issuing the damaging press release and ignoring the facts, has done irreparable damage to its reputation arouond the world.  The Georgian President even got into the act: “No sports mistake is supposed to lead to death.”  Well said.  The ILF ought to take note.

You would think with all the Super Bowl ads that the Strategy of the Week would come from one of the ads, but while some of the ads were creative they were not as strategic as they should be.  Therefore, the award for Strategy of the Week last week went to the Academy Awards.  After 82 years of nominating movies the same way, the Academy decided to nominate not five movies for Best Picture, but ten.  This year ten movies were nominated, including Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, and The Hurt Locker.  Also nominated were movies that normally would not have made it, like “The Blind Side,” “Up in the Air,” and “A Serious Man.”  What the Academy has recognized is that there is clearly more room for people to see nominated movies, perhaps up to ten.  Now instead of people seeing three out of five, they might see seven out of ten.  It gets more people to the movies and allows non-blockbusters to succeed in the awards.  We will have to wait to see if any of those movies win anything, but the Academy’s move to open up the process was clearly the most strategic move last week.

Last week Apple launched its newest device, the iPad, which is a web browser, photo viewer, music player, book reader – on a giant screen (hence, the pad in iPad) meant to wow you with 140,000 apps, all for between $499 and $829.  The launch was clearly a success, as only Apple can do.  As the best kept secret in Apple history, no one even knew its name a week ago and now it’s a household word.  Look closely, however, at the keynote address from Steve Jobs himself, last Wednesday.  Jobs, who is rumored to be ill from liver disease, took the stage and did a remarkable demonstration of the product itself.  It was like having Jobs himself give you your own tutorial.  Take a look (apple.com – see the keynote) and you will see the brand personified by a single person.  He takes you through not just the iPad but the reason to be an Apple customer.  After it’s done, you can’t think of anything better than dropping the five c notes on the new device.  Steve Jobs’s keynote, positioning the new device for the public, was last week’s strategy of the week.