OK Nike, you win. You got me.

Your eerie Tiger Woods commercial got my attention. And I've participated in several conversations about it in the past 24 hours.

I said or wrote the words “;Nike”; and “;Tiger Woods”; about 20 times, this afternoon alone. If my little world is an indicator, Tiger and Nike are trending. Congratulations! It worked ... all the creative energy and other corporate resources invested, all the sign-offs required ... Anybody else smell a Clio?

I can't help myself — see, I'm doing it again, right now, spreading the gospel of Tiger Woods as contrite and Nike as edgy and controversial.

Next thing you know, I'll speed to the nearest Sports Authority to buy some of your lousy golf clubs and a Tiger Woods poster to put on my wall. Or, I will find my hypnotized self rooting for your spokesman instead of Tom Watson, the golfer I'd really like to see win the Masters.

The Oregon football uniforms are even starting to look good.

Nah, that might be going a little bit too far.

Stick it, Nike. You have less class than one of Tiger's porn star girlfriends. Plus, your golf equipment is crap. To whoever conceived and OK'd that ad, go choke on a Swoosh.

That was written by my friend Craig DeVrieze, a sportswriter at the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa, who didn't like your commercial very much. But you know what, Craig's got nearly 400 Facebook friends and is a widely heard voice in his community ... so you can be assured word is getting out in Middle America, too. More great branding for you and the newly humbled Mr. Woods.

Don't get the wrong idea. I don't hate Nike, not at all. I don't hate Tiger Woods, either. I've never cared one way or another about him away from what he does on the golf course.

Nike is, like Woods, a great American success story. I wasn't quite onboard with the whole Asian sweatshops thing, but hey, go ahead and take a mulligan for that one.

And Tiger, give yourself a break, too. I mean, how much flagellation is a man supposed to take in one day? On Wednesday, Augusta National chairman Billy Payne ripped you for being a fallen hero, then the commercial where you're scolded by your dead father aired for the first time.

Where the heck did that audio come from anyway? Did Earl predict this necessity and tape it for you in anticipation of an image fixer-upper?

Talk about planning ahead.

I've received a few Nike products as gifts over the years, including one I use daily. But I haven't bought anything festooned with a swoosh in a long time, pretty much for the same reason I avoid Gatorade: Why contribute to endorsement fees for people who are already millionaires?

And in case you have a hard time detecting sarcasm, I agree with Craig that the commercial is terrible. As a guy who lost his father at a young age, I find using the words of Earl Woods in that manner unsavory and classless.

Our assistant sports editor, Sjarif Goldstein, quipped that Tiger's got that sad look on his face because he lost all his girlfriends.

I Googled the words “;Nike Tiger Woods commercial”; and got thousands of “;News”; hits.

So your message is making the rounds. Your names are on everybody's keyboards and lips.

And according to advertising theory, that's all that matters. Right?

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Reach Star-Bulletin sports columnist Dave Reardon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), his “;Quick Reads”; blog at starbulletin.com, and twitter.com/davereardon.