• by Robert Passikoff , Op-Ed Contributor, December 2, 2009

All this press and speculation about a celebrated Human Brand. Infidelity. Spousal abuse. A mysterious car accident. A bloodied golf club. Silence from the participants. There's enough gossip and rumor out there to fuel a movie-of-the-week.

Okay, one has to have been in a tryptophan-induced stupor since last Thursday not to hear the rumors flying about the blogosphere and the Fourth Estate about Tiger Woods. But here's the recap:

There was a car accident outside of Woods' home in Orlando on Friday. Woods insisted he alone was responsible for the "embarrassing" crash, wherein his Cadillac hit a hydrant and then a tree. Woods was treated in hospital for minor injuries, including a cut lip, and was released after several hours. Police said that alcohol was not a factor.

But police want to determine whether reports that Woods crashed after his wife, the former Swedish model, Elin Nordegren, scratched Woods' face, drawing blood, and attacked his car with a golf club as he tried to drive away from his home following a row over whether allegations that he was having an affair with VIP hostess, Rachel Uchitel, were true. Uchitel denies having any affair with one of the most famous Human Brands stalking golf courses and the mediascape today.

And that's just the tip of the public relations nightmare, and there's more coming. In fact, it's more than enough to alarm the most stalwart of brand managers. Unless, of course, the brand you're managing is that most human of Human Brands, Tiger Woods.

Woods as super-athlete cum Human Brand resonates with values that sports fans and non-sports fan adore: skill, planning prowess, the ability to get of out of sand traps with a single stroke. PR traps, too. These values -- beyond his ability to win and his status as the first billion-dollar athlete in the history of the world -- create a loyalty bond that's second to none. And when you engender loyalty like that, people are six times more likely to give the brand (in this case The Human Brand, Woods) the benefit of the doubt.

Don't confuse prurient interest in press and blog and tweets, and second-to-second media updates with how consumers will act toward the brand in the marketplace. In this case, virtually everyone (okay, not, perhaps, the Orlando police or reporters from the supermarket tabloids) wants to give Tiger his privacy and the benefit of the doubt and move on. Let the guy drive the best way he can, with a club.

There is an old adage that is not just a paradigm followed by consumers, but sometimes applies to the brands themselves, "Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent."