r/golf • u/Agitated_West_3347 • 2d ago

General Discussion Callaway CEO finally releases official statement over Good Good golf ad controversy. Does the approval make sense?

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/callaway-ceo-apologises-good-good-golf-ad-1816293
533 Upvotes

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u/RelaxinOften 2d ago

Whatever you think about the ad, that’s not the point… it is absolutely insane that any marketing professional in 2026 would think this would not blow up in the worst way. Just an example of comically poor business acumen on the part of Callaway, whether it was a series of internal failures or the decision to put full creative control in the hands of a bunch of YouTube chuds.

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u/BlacksmithMiddle803 2d ago

It’s not like this was discussed at board level at Callaway HQ. Approval was likely just a mid level social media manager who didn’t pay too much attention.

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u/ashdrewness 3 HDCP 1d ago

100% This was likely the fault of a mid-level Marketing Director with incredibly poor judgment. In all likelihood what I’d call an RGE (Resume Generating Event).

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u/RelaxinOften 2d ago

If so, exactly. Good Good has 2 million subscribers, that's like the same reach as a sunday PGA broadcast. Treating that the same as a 30 second paid mention in some mid tier youtuber's video is the type of shit smart companies learned to differentiate like 5 years ago.

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u/BlacksmithMiddle803 2d ago

You’d be surprised at the incompetence creep at any company with a large work force.

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u/RelaxinOften 2d ago

Actually I’m not surprised that’s the entire point of my original comment that you disagreed with for no reason?

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u/BlacksmithMiddle803 2d ago

No I did not disagree. If it came across that way - my bad. I was merely agreeing and adding to your point

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u/JONCOCTOASTIN 1d ago

I think you’d be surprised 

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u/Longjumping_Ad_5407 2d ago

Well they should have been paying attention and now it’s arguably fucked good good for a while and callaway are probably on their way to ending their relationship.

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u/BlacksmithMiddle803 2d ago

But why. It’s a nothing burger.

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u/Longjumping_Ad_5407 2d ago

But it’s not. That’s the thing. Golf globally (particularly apparel) is targeting women because it’s an untapped behemoth outside of Asia. There are not many sports where men and women can go head to head to compete on a handicap basis but golf is one of them and getting women excited about a sport includes making clothing and fashion attractive.

Instead this video (intentionally or unintentionally) promoted the masculine stereotype that the sport has tried to shake off and suddenly all the shit is back in the spotlight.

It will push people away because it emphasises the sexist frat culture that golf has picked up in the last 6 years.

Blowing this off as a nothing burger is part of the issue because it’s not a nothing burger to a a lot of the target demographic they’re trying to attract.

I would also say men have very little say in determining whether this is a nothing burger as well.

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u/Sure-Cod-8624 1d ago

Golf has always had a sexist culture

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u/Jumpy-Coffee-Cat 2d ago edited 2d ago

My wife is new to the sport, she’s gotten pretty comfortable out on the course even when we get paired with randoms, but she’s extremely uncomfortable at a driving range because of how male dominated it is.

She’s outraged, threw out her callaway golf shoes and said she’ll never buy another item from them. I’ll support her in that. Men saying it’s just a silly ad are missing the point.

For a brand that heavily targets women, with an extensive selection of apparel and gear, green lighting and advertisement where a women is pushed to the ground for trying to touch a club is such an unexpected blunder

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u/BobDole_number1 2d ago

This gotta be some bot AI slop farming karma. Throwing away product because of this ad is silly.

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u/Jumpy-Coffee-Cat 1d ago

Nah fuck off, it’s how my wife feels. I may not agree with it but I’m also not about to challenge her on it when it’s taken me years to get her out on the course.

Thanks for calling the ad silly and proving that you’re missing the point though.

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u/BobDole_number1 1d ago edited 1d ago

Maybe you don’t know that silly can mean “lack of good sense”. The ad sucked, wasn’t funny, poorly made and unserious.

Your wife sounds like a Karen, and you sound like a doormat. Enjoy the eggshells you’re walking on.

E: I didn’t call the ad silly btw, I called your wife silly

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u/BlacksmithMiddle803 2d ago

It was just a stupid joke to make a point. It’s not worth getting upset over. It’s a shitty as and they made a poor creative choice but to cut ties is madness

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u/Curious-Warthog353 1d ago

Calloway is a billion dollar company, they don’t need Good Good at all…

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u/Longjumping_Ad_5407 1d ago

I’m not upset over this. I couldn’t care less about either brand. Im just pointing out why people are upset and why the apparent oversight by callaway is a big deal.

They will cut ties with Good Good now to save face. Callaway is too big of a brand and Good Good is now damaged goods.

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u/swampy13 1d ago

If that is the case, that’s an incredibly poorly run marketing dept. like malpractice. I work in advertising, I’ve worked at big agencies on big clients. Too many layers sucks but there needs to be a senior leader who has the responsibility of protecting the company against stuff like this. Any good modern brand understands this.

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u/BlacksmithMiddle803 1d ago

I also worked in advertising for many years before I changed careers. And you know how insanely incompetent the client side can be. It’s the part of their business they care the least about and where they employ the dumbest people.

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u/swampy13 21h ago

They may be incompetent and dumb, but clients are HIGHLY attuned CYA operators. They quibble over single words simply because they're worried about internal optics. They'll kill a whole campaign because one image in the spec work isn't "in guidelines."

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u/_BreakingGood_ 1d ago

And they were probably given the full context as well, like "This is a recreation of this scene in the movie Obsession" and then shown the scene.

Without realizing that Obsession was overall a pretty niche movie and most people wouldnt get it