Callaway first partnered with Good Good in 2023 and has had its logo on Good Good shoes, balls and gloves. And late last week, Callaway and Good Good rolled out a co-branded driver. But that rollout included a 60-second ad that featured Good Good’s founder, Garrett Clark, intentionally knocking down a female who was attempting to pull the driver out of his golf bag. Following immense backlash, Good Good pulled the spot and apologized, and later said the spot was meant to be a spoof on the movie, “Obsession.”
Callaway initially issued a pair of statements denouncing the ad, including one from CEO Chip Brewer around 1:15am ET on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Callaway said it was cutting ties with Good Good, effective immediately. In a statement to Sports Business Journal, Callaway said its content review process “was not comprehensive enough.” It said it has also has taken “appropriate internal corrective actions and significantly strengthened our approval procedures.” Additionally, Callaway is donating $1M to support organizations working to prevent violence against women, provide resources to survivors, and advance education and awareness efforts.
Thanks for letting me know Alexis is a member of the team. I don’t think it being a parody of a movie about violence against women justifies it at all. (I’m not saying you are justifying it, to be clear).
It is crazy that the ad ever got approved. I haven’t seen the movie so the premise is right over my head, but how they thought it was appropriate is beyond me.
People get strong armed to do stupid things at jobs all the time. She might have hated doing it, but if its between that and having the CEO decide youre not a “team player,” people will suck it up and do dumb shit to stay employed.
I don’t think they saw the movie either.
Or they did and knew exactly the kind of message they were sending. They just weren’t expecting the backlash.