Golf ball ad with Daly, alcohol leaves bad taste

Enlarge By Mark Ralston, AFP/Getty Images Rules prevent John Daly from using a golf cart on the PGA Tour. CBS has prevented Daly's use of a golf cart while carrying a beer by banning a TV commercial for manufacturer Maxfli.

By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY

There's a certain logic to making edgy ads networks will refuse to carry, especially if you're trying to wake up a sleepy brand.

You get publicity from being banned.

That presumably drives viewers to your website to see what they have to be protected against. And you don't have to spend much.

But Maxfli might pay a price for an ad campaign starring an active athlete, who probably has the sports world's best-known problem with alcohol, cavorting about in an on-air atmosphere as boozy as any beer ad — to sell golf balls, of all things.

In a sort of music video parody, golfer John Daly — who had two major titles and two trips to alcohol rehab before turning 30 — is seen whizzing around a golf cart and grabbing a beer out of a guy's mouth. He also plays guitar and sings "go long or go home" to hype the new Maxfli Fire ball billed as delivering "mind-blowing ball speed" in a rowdy bar, where we see a woman's undergarments thrown at him in appreciation.

Actually, the whole thing would be funny if, say, Vijay Singh or Davis Love III — how about Jim Nantz? — had been cast as the ad's lead libertine. But it isn't with Daly, who's been quite open about his alcohol-related problems.

CBS refuses to air the ad, spokeswoman LeslieAnne Wade says, because it violates network guidelines prohibiting ads "with direct, or implied, excessive consumption of alcohol," especially when an ad also "involves hazardous activity."

OK, fine: Now we can all go to maxfli.com to check out the video just like the marketing master plan intended.

WHERE TO SEE IT: Go to maxfli.com, click on 'John's RV' tab

There you can find the ad's 90-second "uncut" version, where a woman in the bar appears to lift her blouse to flash Daly, who's also seen doing a semi-wheelie in a golf cart. Talk about hijinks!

Except that wasn't the plan, Maxfli senior director of marketing Bob Maggiore says: "We were shocked CBS drew those conclusions. They were looking through the wrong lens — it was never intended to be any of that. … It's like this came out of left field."

Still, he is drinking behind the wheel.

"But he's in a golf cart," Maggiore says. "And if operating a golf cart like that was a crime, police could find plenty of easy sobriety checkpoints at 10th greens."

Don't laugh. We might see those when the Baby Boomers all hit retirement.

Michael Mark, creative director-CEO of San Diego-based NYCA Advertising, which made the Maxfli ad, says CBS' view is "completely outdated. I understand the sensitivity of the world now. But this is life. Beer is part of golf."

In case you don't happen to know golf rules, you should know that Mark isn't being literal.

"There's 19 holes in golf," he says. "They have golf cart girls (dispensing beer) in everyday golf. … And you don't see the guy guzzling a keg."

You can go to maxfli.com to see a keg in the living room of the home described as Daly's RV.

Maxfli, Mark says, is a "historic" brand, whose endorsers included Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman, that's "become less relevant to golfers" that needed to be repositioned with a "rebel" Daly. "You watch Tiger Woods. Who looks like him? Nobody. But showing Daly just as he is, that's going to grow the game of golf. It's almost like reality TV. This is reality commercials."

The Golf Channel, whose Daly Planet reality show last year followed Daly and included his drinking — "but our producers used discretion," spokesman Dan Higgins says — has already aired the Maxfli ad.

Says Higgins: "Although the spot passed our criteria and our mature audience is more familiar with John Daly as one of golf's larger-than-life characters, we're sensitive to the issues at hand and are looking into other viable options to running the commercial."

Maxfli, adman Mark says, would like to air the ad on NBC.

NBC's Brian Walker said Tuesday, "We can't comment on an ad that hasn't been submitted."

Many viewers might see Daly as the golf pro they'd most like to hang out with. But casting him to co-star with beer to sell stuff seems as odd as putting Alec Baldwin in any new ad for fancy voice-mail service.

Spice rack: New York radio station WFAN says Boomer Esiason will fill Don Imus' old time slot next week. … Veteran sports producer Michael Weisman has been named the new executive in charge of the NBC Sunday night NFL studio show. Says NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol: "We probably went a little too far just getting the train on the tracks (last season) and not far enough in having fun."