• Ad Age, Bloomberg, Wednesday, December 9, 2009 10:46 AM

You've probably heard the broadcast reports that "Pepsi is dropping Tiger" but, as Natalie Zmuda's subhed points out, the "overexcited media" was "pouncing on weeks-old news." Move along, in other words, there's nothing to see here. "As reported last month, we decided several months ago to discontinue Gatorade Tiger Focus," Pepsi says in a statement, "along with some other products to make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010."

Introduced in March 2008, Tiger Focus purportedly enhanced mental focus and included 25% more electrolytes than Gatorade Thirst Quencher. Beverage Digest's John Sicher tells Zmuda that "it was an interesting attempt, but it didn't work out that well."

Bloomberg's Brett Pulley and Michael Bureau, meanwhile, write that ads featuring Woods have all but vanished from the tube. The last prime-time spot featuring the golfer was a 30-second Gillette effort on Nov. 29, according to Nielsen data, and Tiger's pitching was as notably absent as his putting was from last weekend's sports programs.

"Near term, you've got to pull the ads," says Larry Novenstern, managing director at Optimedia. "A transgression of this type in his personal life is never good but if anyone can weather a storm, it's probably Tiger Woods."

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