Some ads really make you question whether or not people (men) thought it through. A new ad for Callaway, the golf brand, released a new commercial on social media that featured a woman reaching for a man’s golf club. To stop her, the man shoved her to the ground, leered over here, and said to never touch his driver. And we’re supposed to want to go out and buy a golf club because of this?
Callway and Good Good’s CEOs issued a statement apologizing for the ad. Callaway CEO Chip Brewer understood that mistakes were made and said “this will never happen again.” Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick wrote in a statement that “The execution missed the mark,” after revealing that the ad was supposed to be a parody of the movie Obsession. “I understand why people found it insensitive, and I want to be clear that neither I nor anyone at Good Good condones violence of any kind. Regardless of what we intended, we are responsible for what we put into the world and how it is received. We got this one wrong.”
Here is the issue: How is this ad a parody? How is this referencing Obsession? Is the idea that a man was so in love with a Callaway driver that he used a One Wish Willow to get it and it resulted in him willing to assault a woman in the process? Can Kendrick walk us through how any of this leads to a “clever” ad in the minds of Good Good and Callaway? Because what it reads is that a bunch of men saw Obsession, missed the point, and then issued a half bake apology when everyone got mad at the ad.
So did no one understand Obsession there?
In Curry Barker’s 2026 hit Obsession, the film has a One Wish Willow as a device. Bear (Michael Johnston) uses it to wish that his crush Nikki (Inde Navarrette) would love him more than anyone in the “f******” world. The problem with a wish like that is that it took away Nikki’s own agency and turned her into a woman whose entire life was dedicated to Bear. The title of Obsession can (and should) be referencing Bear’s own obsession with Nikki but the key to Barker’s movie is that Nikki’s obsession is all because of Bear’s wish.
It’s an incredible litmus test with people. Show Obsession to a man and then ask him who the villain is. See what his response is to Bear having sex with Nikki while knowing she’s not fully herself because he knows he’s not fully herself and still has a sexual relationship with her. All of this is important in understanding how badly Good Good and Callaway got things when making this ad.
It’s not rare for companies to want to parody popular movies, songs, or shows in their ads. The “Eye of the Tiger” Starbucks ad from the early 00s comes to mind. But maybe those companies should watch said movies before attempting to do so? Because all this ad did was show a man assaulting a woman over a golf club that many of us will never purchase thanks to this ad.
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