"Standing in the hall of fame!"
If you're a golf fan, there's a decent chance you've heard this song almost every day since last July. That's when watchmaker Omega put out a commercial, shot at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, featuring Rory McIlroy set to The Script's catchy, royalty-magnet song, "Hall of Fame."
Of course, the timing of the ad couldn't have been better. When it debuted, McIlroy had just become Open champion and was amid a three-tournament winning streak that concluded with his second PGA Championship title. Even the press release was cute, attributing a cute quote to McIlroy about his future World Golf Hall of Fame prospects.
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“At the end of my career I’d like to be in the hall of fame of golf and I want to be remembered as one of the greatest golfers who have ever played,” McIlroy said. “I think there are a few lines in [“Hall of Fame”] that sort of resonate with me and I thought it was a good choice for the commercial.”
While McIlroy's got a long way before he turns 40 and becomes eligible for induction to the Hall of Fame, the Ulsterman is now far and away the best player in the world, a name -- a missed cut at The Honda Classic that left him "pissed off" aside -- practically stapled to the top of any leaderboard. It makes sense for Omega to ride McIlroy's momentum on his wrist.
The problem is that the watchmaker only seems to make one ad each year, typically making a big splash associated with the PGA Championship. As a partner of the PGA of America, Omega gets a ton of commercial time, which leads to almost immediate ad fatigue. There's only so many times someone can hear "Hall of fame!" screeched before you hit the Mute button, or, as with the Sergio Garcia ad the year prior, see a watch gear move quickly in sequence with the Spaniard's swing before you wish for a digital watch more than anything.
Now that we know we'll be seeing this ad until August, at least we know the prison term. The only hope is the ad we see for most of 2016 won't use some Iggy Azalea song.
