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Golf marketing musings: Dick Fowler, P.I.

Published

12 years ago

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When I’m not writing things for GolfWRX, I am working for an ad agency in Myrtle Beach that represents a number of area golf courses. So the confluence of advertising and golf is, you could say, of interest to me.

Please don’t mistake me for one of those sold-out marketing types who loves to tell everyone, “When I watch TV, I pay more attention to the commercials than the actual show!” Those people have an unnecessary Don Draper complex. But it is good to see commercial breaks during golf telecasts becoming a bit more palatable.

Over the years, there’s been a relative paucity of truly intriguing golf-related advertising campaigns. Most have been safe and relatively conservative, which is no surprise, given the game’s main demographic distribution.

But as streaks of trendiness have crept into the industry in the last few years, a number of brands—not just golf companies, mind you—have waded into choppier waters with regard to golf and have churned out some pretty entertaining ads as a result.

The latest of those ad campaigns has surfaced this week. Farmer’s Insurance, via Santa Monica, California-based ad agency RPA, has transformed Southern Californian fun-loving PGA Tour player Rickie Fowler into Dick Fowler, P.I. This alter-Fowler sniffs out crimes against proper golf etiquette and subjects the perpetrators to punishments that very deftly walk the line between the absurd and the humiliating. See what I mean below:

[youtube id=”MXU7P5Vci5U” width=”620″ height=”360″]

[youtube id=”4bv3OwQyFmM” width=”620″ height=”360″]

The ads blend Caddyshack-style camp and Starsky and Hutch-style crime movie parody quite well. The low level of general seriousness of the ads helps, too—their willingness to make fun of their relatively mundane (though undoubtedly important) product courts the audience’s trust very effectively.

Farmers has bought into an emerging trend in advertising whereby brands focus more on creating interesting (in this case, amusing) content than hammering the viewer with explicit messaging about their product. These two videos are not going to educate you as to why Farmers Insurance is better than, say, State Farm’s (which also has some pretty decent ads, courtesy of  DDB Chicago).

At best, you may smirk at the memory of Dick Fowler, P.I. if and when you do decide to make a change in your insurers. Farmers’ more mainstream “Farmers University” campaign, starring J.K. Simmons, carry the same sort of light-hearted perspective. You can almost time the beginning of the subtly self-deprecating “We are Farmers, Bum-ba-dum-bum-bum-bum-bum” jingle at the end, which is a mark of a successful ad.

There is still room for improvement on the PGA Tour player-orbiting ad campaign front. As interesting a post-round interview as Jim Furyk can be, the ads Five Hour Energy puts him in are painfully dull. And it has nothing to do with his status as a forty-something juxtaposed with Rickie Fowler’s youth — both Mitsubishi air conditioning and Avis car rental have some nice spots running that have Fred Funk and Steve Stricker, respectively, in slyly amusing roles. Agencies Ames Scullin O’Haire (Atlanta-based) and Leo Burnett (Chicago-based) are to thank for those campaigns.

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Tim grew up outside of Hartford, Conn., playing most of his formative golf at Hop Meadow Country Club in the town of Simsbury. He played golf for four years at Washington & Lee University (Division-III) and now lives in Pawleys Island, S.C., and works in nearby Myrtle Beach in advertising. He's not too bad on Bermuda greens, for a Yankee. A lifelong golf addict, he cares about all facets of the game of golf, from equipment to course architecture to PGA Tour news to his own streaky short game.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. Tim Gavrich

    Sep 3, 2013 at 10:40 pm

    Thanks for all the comments, all. I certainly understand the bristling at all the name-dropping of ad agencies who created the spots I refer to in the piece, but I kind of see it as analogous to mentioning the writer of a song or painter of a painting. Just giving the credit where it’s due. Lots of people like to just see the paintings when they visit a museum – totally cool with me.

    Steve, I do agree, looking back, that I could’ve taken a bit stronger position in summing the article up. But I think I’m okay with leaving it a bit open-ended. In truth, I just want to not be bored to tears or, worse, appalled by the low quality of what I see during commercial breaks. Farmers, Avis and Mitsubishi seem to get it. Five Hour Energy…not quite as much.

    Thanks for taking the time to comment, all.

    –Tim

    Reply Report comment

  2. 8thehardway

    Sep 1, 2013 at 11:18 pm

    GREAT article… tight, upbeat and deftly executed, as enjoyable and well-crafted as the Dick Fowler ads.

    Maybe an unnecessary FYI: the ’emerging trend’ of replacing explicit messaging with interesting content was satirized in a Seinfeld episode (The Airport, 1992) where the subject of an ad, a pair of jeans, supposedly appeared in the corner of a messy room.

    Thanks for such a delightful and informative read.

    Reply Report comment

  3. Steve

    Aug 31, 2013 at 8:23 pm

    Well written article, and amusing clips = but I am not sure the piece is finished. The writer seems to be building a case for something – either he doesn’t like the new breed of marketing, (or he does)…. but it seems like the article is cut short – that the rest of the piece is missing or something..

    So does he want more campy stuff, or go back to 50’s style ads (aka the old Turtle Wax ads back in the day), or what?

    Reply Report comment

  4. vic

    Aug 31, 2013 at 11:05 am

    thanking an ad agency is about the last thing i’d want to do. EVER.

    Reply Report comment

  5. bill

    Aug 30, 2013 at 2:56 am

    Wow, to check in for my routine updates on world wide golf only to see myself appearing in this spot with Ricky was quite a surprise. That’s me about to take a hack at it before being interrupted by the yapper!! Ricky could not have been more fun to work with that day in LA. Brookside Golf Course to be exact. He even signed a brand spankin’ new PUMA cap for me! Great day indeed!!

    Reply Report comment

  6. Brand Me Silly

    Aug 29, 2013 at 6:46 pm

    I’m surprised the word “synergy” or “cohesive” wasn’t used, but the author did get in “juxtapose” and “confluence”… Mad men ad men are predictable in their creativity. I really liked the name dropping of ad agency studs that 99.9% of the population has no idea who they are. Don Draper and David Ogilvy approved this message.

    Reply Report comment

  7. Ronald Montesano

    Aug 29, 2013 at 6:28 pm

    Irony…Fowler makes a guy eat a divot, then tears up the fairway with his dirt bike. Love his Sancho Panza sidekick.

    Reply Report comment

  8. Bryan Cromlish

    Aug 29, 2013 at 1:55 pm

    I loved these ads, our whole office did.

    I can’t say it enough how much I think Ricky is good for the game of golf. He is leading the charge to make golf cool to the younger generation. I’ve heard people who dislike him or “The Golf Boys” and how they are pulling away from traditional golf. As long as there is a balance, I believe these guys are helping the game evolve.

    He’s not the worst actor haha!

    Reply Report comment

  9. Anonoymous

    Aug 29, 2013 at 11:49 am

    shut up johnny.

    Reply Report comment

  10. Johnny Kilroy

    Aug 29, 2013 at 11:29 am

    Is this really news worthy stuff for WRX? I know you guys are trying to find more writers, but outside of tournament coverage, content has been lacking. This isn’t as bad as the twitter piece earlier this week, but throw me a freakin bone here man…I want to know more about players, the tour and the game, not marketing campaigns.

    Reply Report comment

    • Checkout The Forums

      Aug 30, 2013 at 7:43 pm

      “I want to know more about the players, the tour, and the game” ——That’s what the forums are for. Click that button at the top right labeled “FORUMS”. You’ll just have to filter the content between rumors and facts yourself.

      Reply Report comment

      • John

        Sep 1, 2013 at 1:17 am

        Wrong. What forums are for is garbage like this, in fact there is already a thread with this very same information. This isn’t news…this is highlighting a Rickie Fowler commercial. News articles should be newsworthy. This clearly isn’t, no matter how much you like Rickie.

        Reply Report comment

        • Johnny Kilroy Sr.

          Sep 1, 2013 at 6:45 pm

          If the content is lacking, apply to become a writer and change the content, or STFU and GTFO.

          Reply Report comment

          • Johnny Kilroy

            Sep 2, 2013 at 2:06 pm

            This is the means by which we affect change Einstein…through a critique of the article. Which is dead in point. Except for the three of you Rickie fans, no one else bothered to read this piece of junk. Why? Because it’s a poorly written meaningless article about golf advertising. Regardless of how much you love Rickie, it doesn’t change that fact.

            That you can’t figure that out says a lot about you, and that’s not a good thing buddy.

            Reply Report comment

  11. Caroline Chisanga

    Aug 29, 2013 at 11:12 am

    WOW! I have loved following Ricky Fowler already just because of his fun outlook on life in general, but this just took it to an entirely NEW level!!

    Reply Report comment

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