Back to the Future: It has ALWAYS Been About Distance!

Written By: John Barba

So I’m finally getting the chance to flip through the Golf Digest “Hot List” issue, and I don’t care if it is all ad driven or not, I still enjoy reading it. For the ads.

That’s sort of like reading Playboy for the articles.

So it starts with a multi-page fold out for Callaway’s new XR series (more distance via Outrageous Speed).  Then there’s Cobra’s Fly-Z (more distance through more carry or more roll), the AeroBurner (distance through speed), Nike (the only thing better than a whole lot of distance? More distance!) and Ping (get fast or get passed).

Irons? The RSi ad tells you you’ll get more distance even with off-center shots. Ping says you’ll get consistency and distance while sacrificing nothing.

Mizuno bucks the trend. Its two-page MP-15 spread touts Look, Performance, Feel and Luke Donald.

For everyone else, it’s all about speed, distance, adjustability, distance, fine-tuning, speed and distance.  Not necessarily in that order.

I had a discussion with some cranky golf equipment friends about this very topic not too long ago. The general consensus? Today’s marketing caters to the lowest common denominator in golf: the distance obsessed. The marketing machine has lost all creativity and figures the only way to sell stuff is by promising you’ll hit the snot out of the ball, and hit it past your buddies, only if you buy our stuff.

“This preoccupation with distance is awful, isn’t it?” they whined. “It’s a horrific trend started by the TaylorMades of the world with all the other lemming companies following their leads.  And what’s worse, they think we golfers are dumb enough to believe that we can actually buy more distance.”

Sure wasn’t like that back in the old days….

Right?

What Do The Facts Tells Us?

Fortunately, we at MyGolfSpy deal in provable truths and #datacratic conclusions. Even more fortunately, the folks at Sports Illustrated provide us with a tool to prove, or disprove, the notion that distance advertising is a cynical new thought-control tactic developed by soulless marketing departments aimed at the weak-minded golfer.

“The Vault” is an online, page-by-page collection of every issue Sports Illustrated has ever published, ads and all. It’s fascinating to see how ads in general, and golf ads in particular, have evolved over the decades:  slicker, with more graphics and less text. Ads have evolved to be more eye-catching over the years but there’s one common thread that’s decades old:

Distance.

“1.21 Jigawatts? Great Scott!”

Let’s fire up the DeLorean’s Flux Capacitor and head to 1960 for a look at this ad for Wilson Staff balls:

Here’s smiling Billy Casper telling you that hitting a Wilson is like “having the wind at your back,” with ball speeds of “170 MPH off the club head.”

“Play the 1960 Wilson Staff…the long ball of golf.”

A ball that changed the ball, no doubt.

Now let’s fast-forward to 1968, and PG Tournament Caliber Golf balls:

They really fly!  “Smack one,” the ad says.

From an advertising standpoint, that’s definitely “old school,” despite the clever attempt at cartoon birds. I’m guessing Professional Golf Equipment didn’t have a huge advertising budget, since this is a fairly bland ad with lots of text, and was placed near the back of the magazine.

If that 1968 ad is “old school,” then this 1969 MaxFli ad is definitely “new school”:

A lot less text with the picture telling the story.

Can’t make it with a 7-iron, pal. 

Oh yeah? Bite me!  Just watch…

And you get an idea whom Maxfli thought of as their core customer in 1968: the guy who took up golf in the late 50’s, loved Arnie, hated Jack and thought “hippies” were ruining America.

And neither guy dressed like Ricky Fowler.

Also in ’69, Maxima brought golf into the Space Age as Apollo Moon missions met the fairway. And the message couldn’t be clearer:

“Will First Flight force America to build longer golf courses?”

We’re talking a rocket ship of a golf ball here. And at the bottom Maxima puts its stake in the ground:

If you lose one, however, you’re screwed.

This ad from 1972 isn’t distance-related, but it may have started Titleist down the #1 Ball in Golf path by letting us know just how much money was won on the PGA tour thanks to the boys at Acushnet.

“Isn’t our tour success a convincing reason for you to play the Money Ball?” Hey, an ad that says tour players use our stuff, so you should too. What a novel concept!

How About The sticks?

Well, the deeper you look, the more interesting it gets…

Here’s a two-page Wilson ad from 1967. As you can see, there’s still a ton of text, but at least the pictures are getting more interesting. And the text tells a story that is downright Callaway/TaylorMade-esque:

Why are the ’67 Wilson’s #EpicallyLong? Apparently it was the exclusive “Strata-Bloc” construction:

The “distance secret” is found in the “layers of select maple strips bonded together into a single, powerful unit – a club head that’s stronger than natural wood.”

And don’t forget the “miracle resin” insert. “Teamed with Strata-Bloc, you get a ‘sweet spot’ that’s just packed with dynamite.”

In 2015 Callaway says the “thinner and lighter R-MOTO face transfers energy to the ball more efficiently than ever before.”

And here’s a Wilson ad from the early 70’s. Notice it’s a lot cleaner with less text, which reflects the evolving advertising industry. And it’s talking to the “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” generation of “swingers” (Ask your parents. Or maybe you shouldn’t).

“Dynapower” irons give you “maximum power at the point of impact,” and the soles are designed to prevent “digging in.” The light, strong aluminum shafts put more power and more distance into your shots.

And each shaft is matched its own club head weight so that “when you swing a Wilson, you’re heading for a better golf game.”

So you could buy a better golf game back then?

And does anyone remember when Spalding was one of the premier names in golf, and not just Judge Smails’ nose-picking grandson?

Wait, what?

“The reason is simple. Spalding’s new Executive Clubs are made with special aluminum shafts. They feel like steel but they’re lighter. So they give you more speed with the same swing power.”

Speed = Distance? The Grandaddy of “Outrageous Speed?” All we’re missing are Turbulators.

Arnie always has been The King, but did you know his Kingdom once included Sears?

This two-pager from ’69–70 touts Arnie’s clubs with those spiffy, light, strong aluminum shafts. Arnie must have been channeling his inner TaylorMade because those shafts in Arnie’s clubs promote a “greater clubhead speed at the point of impact, which helps you belt a ball up to 20 yards further.”

Twenty!

And there was uproar a while back over 17?

MacGregor was a giant back in the old days, long before becoming one of the house brands at Golfsmith. And their early 70’s ads were clearly aimed at a younger, more active demographic:

Color, less text and an action shot of a young, fit, nattily attired athlete (vs. the two old fogies from the MaxFli ad just a few years prior) actually playing the game. MacGregor is clearly looking at a younger, more active demographic than Wilson – just like Cobra today, minus the Blair O’Neil bikini shots.

This MacGregor ad is an outstanding example of early 70’s advertising, and tells a compelling story of how the club design will take thin and fat shots out of your game:

And can you remember when Johnny Miller was skinny?

“Professional golfers know that maximum clubhead speed at impact means greater distance. MacGregor’s exclusive new TEE SOLE woods are designed to give you greater speed at impact. Our soles are smaller than those of conventional woods.  This creates less turf drag.”

Turf drag must have been a big problem in the early 70’s.

“The result is consistently longer, more accurate shots from fairway or short rough.”

I had a set of those MacGregor Tourneys. For me they were #EpicallyLong.

In every direction.

Et Tu, Ben?

Surely there must have been one company in golf history that didn’t try to market distance. I know, what about Hogan?

Ol’ Ben was a purist, the shot-maker’s shot-maker. Serious clubs for serious golfers. His hands were on everything in that company, even after he sold it.

Surely Hogan wouldn’t stoop to selling “distance?”

Would he?

“This special 1967 Ben Hogan Wood features a shallow head, longer face and longer clubhead, with weight distribution for greater speed. The result is a wood club which gives you more margin for error (we call that “forgiveness” today) with improved distance and accuracy.”

On the same page are the “curved sole” woods, which offer “reliably greater distance with excellent playability from the tee and from thick turf…”

A year later he was at it again, that rascal…

Shameless!

Well shoot, it’s not like Nixon was saying it. It was Ben freaking Hogan.

“This new distance performance is possible because four key design developments have been refined in my 1968 irons. These changes, while not easily visible, now mean you can use a club less than you normally would.”

He didn’t jack up the lofts, did he? Tell me he didn’t jack up the lofts!

“Where you have been using a 6 iron, you now can use a 7 iron and still get the same distance with greater control.”

Can’t find the specs for the Plus 1’s online anywhere, but for the irons I could find it would appear that Hogan was not above messing with lofts. So it’s a fair bet that two of those key design developments refined for 1968 may very well have been a stronger lofted 7 iron and a slightly longer shaft.

In 1968.

Back To The Future

And as we return to 2015, what does this little experiment in Time Travel tell us?

For the marketing buff, it’s fascinating to see how advertising has evolved over the years. Flip through the latest SI or Golf Digest and see what ads catch your attention, but also pay attention to the ones that don’t (that’s hard, I know). Chances are you’ll be drawn to the ones that portray movement and action, with lots of pictures and relatively little text. And what text there is focuses on what the technology does for you  – raw, naked distance.

The best ads throughout history have done this. In 1920 a guy named Claude Hopkins changed the marketing world with his book Scientific Marketing.

For the most part, the ads shown here did just that, as do the better ads you see in today’s magazines. They catch your eye, tell you a quick story, appeal to your passion, give you information you want and tell you how their stuff will help you whack the snot out of the ball.

As it was in 1960, so it is in 2015.

You can also see changes in the overall advertising industry. As the 60’s wore on, golf advertising budgets became larger with more full page or two-page ads in full color. There’s more creativity, more photos and less text. I suppose we can thank Arnie, Jack and TV for turning golf into a big business over the decade, just as we can thank Tiger for a similar boom in the late ‘90’s.

And even though product cycles were longer back then, manufacturers still touted their new technology. And advanced technology shows itself in one very simple to understand concept – the ability to hit a golf ball farther.

That was true with the Wilson Staff Long Ball in 1960, and it’s true today.

Distance, like sex, sells.