'BIMBO of the Year' Award Goes to Tiger Woods' Agent and 'Team Tiger'

DALLAS, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2009 BIMBO of the Year Award for communication blunders goes to Tiger Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg.

"This is the first time someone is winning for what they haven't said," commented Merrie Spaeth, founder of Spaeth Communications. "There was intense competition for the winning comment, but Team Tiger wins for giving bad advice, acting as enablers and covering for Tiger's bad behavior."

The purpose of the BIMBO awards is to remind people that communication is strategic and can have a very real impact. In this instance, Tiger's lack of communication cost him his reputation and millions in endorsements.

Team Tiger earns a failing grade on handling the crisis at Tiger's house. He didn't say anything for days, and then had mealy mouth, whiny comments about "transgressions" and "personal sins" on his website. His team also failed at communicating with their key audiences, Tiger himself, and helping Tiger communicate with his key audiences.

"This wasn't 'managing' Tiger's career," said Spaeth. "This was criminal mismanagement. Professionals are hired for their advice, even when the client doesn't want to hear it."

This year's runners-up include Whoopi Goldberg with her comment on The View about the conviction of Roman Polanski for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, "I know it wasn't rape-rape. I think it was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape." Barclays' Chief Executive Jon Varley is the second runner-up for his comment, "Profit is not satanic."

The 2009 Dishonorable Mention is awarded to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for his comment, "I'm here to tell you right off the bat that I'm not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing."

To learn more about the BIMBO awards, or to subscribe to the monthly BIMBO memo, visit www.spaethcom.com.

Spaeth Communications, Inc. is a strategic consulting and training firm that pioneered the concept that effective communication is about understanding that the listener only remembers a few things, and the goal is to influence what the listener hears, believes and remembers. BIMBO comments were named for a woman caught in a tryst who announced, "I am not a BIMBO." BIMBO comments illustrate the perils of repeating and denying a negative word. The listener overlooks the denial and hears the opposite of what the speaker is trying to say.

SOURCE Spaeth Communications, Inc.