TaylorMade Golf Drives Message Home with ‘Marshals’

I am fascinated with golf. I can’t play it (I’ve tried—yikes), but it fascinates me nonetheless. The patience involved, the chess-like strategy, the days-long tournaments (talk about lack of sleep), the quiet “Ohs” and “Ahs”, and it all comes down to a little white ball rolling its way into a hole with a diameter of 4-¼ inches. It’s a difficult game. But if “Marshals” by TaylorMade Golf is to be taken seriously, golf may have just gotten easier and… more boring?

In July, TaylorMade Golf premiered its new Twist Face driver in an ad titled “Marshals”. Made by the L.A. agency Zambezi, the ad featured five of today’s top golfers using the new M3 and M4 Twist Face drivers and in doing so documented the day in the life of three course marshals (individuals responsible for signaling the direction of a ball and locating ones that land in the rough). Due to the Twist Face’s performance, all the drives were uber-straight and the marshals were left with nothing to do but watch. They were bored.

“Course marshals are an iconic part of any tournament,” said TaylorMade senior director, global marketing Mark Buntz. “So, they proved to be the perfect characters to effectively bring the product benefits to life.” They did.

Some Good

TaylorMade hit a hole-in-one on these shots…

1. Star Power – As stated above, I am not a golfer; however, I pay attention enough to know who is who. With the likes of Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Justin Rose and Jon Rahm, the ad was able to use the clout of the golfers to springboard its new line of drivers. This was an ad geared to a niche market: Golfers. To amateur golfers everywhere, his or her thoughts would be: “If McIlory uses TaylorMade’s Twist Face, then I should too!”

2. Supporting Cast – As good as your lead actor is, the supporting cast can make or break a picture. Well, in this ad they made it. Their job was simple. Look bored… and they did! From taking a break in the heat and fanning yourself to cool down to just shaking your head and shrugging your shoulders, the performances were simple but alive and brought a smirk to my face every time.

3. Cinematography – With an undercurrent of blue and a deep saturation that brought out every dye from red to gray, the color achieved with the camerawork was tasteful and engrossing. The red on the marshals was some of the best I’d ever seen. Add to that the sublime use of focus, from expertly placed wide and shallow depths of field, the ad’s photography trapped your eyes and smoothly trained them to where they wanted you to look. Oh! And that use of what looked like film grain! An eagle shot for sure!

Some Bad

No mulligans for this ad!

The Takeaway

Beautifully shot with expert caddy work from the star-golfers and the actors portraying the course marshals, TaylorMade and Zambezi swung and aced their drives in “Marshals”.