SO TIGER Tiger Woods has lost some sponsorship deals after the revelations about his sex life.
Well, perhaps he could follow the example of countless other celebrities and advertise a Christmas product.
Turkey, perhaps. ("It's one birdie that won't get you into trouble.")
Forgive my cynical tone. It's not Tiger Woods, whose sex life is n
one of my business, that's making me jaded - it's the pre-Christmas advertising.
The nature of fame has changed, so that what someone is famous for has become to an extent, irrelevant. But there used to be a principle whereby an artist lost credibility the moment they began endorsing a product.
It still happens occasionally.
I'm not the first to point out that Iggy Pop has lost any punk-rock credibility by advertising car insurance.
And David Mitchell and Robert Webb, the Peepshow stars, caused a refreshing degree of umbrage when they began advertising computers.
Peepshow is one of those series that inspires obsessive degrees of devotion in its audience and many of them felt a sense of betrayal at seeing Mitchell and Webb selling out.
As Mitchell pointed out at the time, theirs was an insecure business.
Fair enough, perhaps. He was only just starting to enter the mainstream at the time and it's only understandable that he would want the reassuring financial boost of an advertising deal.
It must seem, to not-so-young comedians who are just starting to get the attention they've always dreamed of, that it could all end tomorrow.
But the run-up to Christmas has seen a glut of celebrities who surely don't need the money advertising all manner of festive stuff.
How insecure is Ewan McGregor, who has lowered himself in my opinion, by advertising aftershave?
Once he was the great new hope of British acting. Now he looks just like another celeb who'll do anything for more cash.
He's been in the Star Wars films; surely he doesn't need the money.
Why does it irritate me? I suppose the bottom line is that product endorsement by famous people is vaguely insulting. It's based on the assumption that consumers are so dazzled by fame itself that we'll buy anything a celebrity is paid to tell us to buy.
You might want to see Ewan McGregor in a film because he's a talented and entertaining actor - or because you fancy him.
But why should I start buying a certain aftershave because Ewan McGregor is paid to pretend to like it?
There's no reason that doesn't reflect badly on me - and McGregor.
