Golfer Lexi Thompson's appearance in the "
edgy, racy new Puma commercial" has created "quite the buzz" at this week's Wegmans LPGA Championship in Rochester, according to Randall Mell of GOLFCHANNEL.com. The "Calling All Troublemakers" spot "winds and cuts its way through scenes with a number of Puma's top athletes, including Thompson, who is shown in action hitting a golf shot before a quick cut to her sitting in a hot tub between two men with candles aglow around them." She is seen "holding a driver over her shoulder" in the hot tub. Thompson's agent Bobby Kreusler said that it was a "triumph to get women's golf in the mix with these other athletes from big-time sports," including Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and AC Milan F Mario Balotelli. Thompson "flew to Germany earlier this year to meet with Puma officials, and then flew to Milan, Italy, to film the commercials." Kreusler: "We want to get people interested in women's golf, and this takes women's golf outside the golf niche." Kreusler said that he "understands the sensibilities the Puma commercial may challenge in golf circles." Kreusler: "It's going to shock some people, because some people still think of Lexi as the 15-year-old who turned pro. She isn't 15 anymore. She's 19. She's all grown up. ... We very much thought it was done tastefully, with some sophistication, and that there's nothing wrong with showing that these world-class athletes are also beautiful women." Thompson said, "I felt pretty comfortable doing it. I go in a bathing suit to the pool or the beach. There's nothing wrong with it, but it was different. I'm hoping to get a little bit out of the golf world and not just be known as a golfer. Puma has done great doing that and being different" (
GOLFCHANNEL.com, 8/14). See the full endorsement portfolio for
Lexi Thompson at Resource Guide LIVE.
GETTING HER FEET WET: GOLFWEEK's Beth Ann Nichols noted Thompson prior to this campaign "had yet to appear in a single print ad or commercial spot for Puma." Kreusler said that they "received confirmation that she would be in the ad" prior to Thompson's victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the LPGA's first major of '14. Kreusler: "I do think there’s a risk in anything that we do that I’ll call outside of the middle of the road, but we analyzed it with Puma and everyone involved and felt it was designed to be fun and interesting and thought-provoking.” Nichols noted the "challenge of reaching a broader audience" outside of golf is a "decades-old problem for LPGA players that Kreusler hopes to solve." He is "confident that Thompson’s presence in Puma’s international campaign is a step in the right direction, even if controversy follows" (GOLFWEEK.com, 8/14).
