A good decision from GM

General Motors, in an attempt to hold onto some cash, has ended its endorsement of Tiger Woods.

Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president for North American marketing, said GM and Woods started discussing an end to the deal earlier this year and it had nothing to do with the Detroit Three automakers' quest for $25 billion in federal loans. But GM's statement said the decision was made as part of "the search for budget efficiencies during a difficult economy for General Motors."
It's true that in the overall scheme of things, the money that GM paid to Woods probably wasn't the kind of thing that would put a company the size of GM over the edge, but it's good that they're dropping the endorsement deal all the same. I, for one, never understood the point of the partnership. GM claimed they were hoping to make the Buick label seem younger by tying it to Woods, but they didn't do much to change the vehicles, and while Woods may be relatively young, golf is still perceived as an old (white) man's game. I don't have any way to know if the partnership resulted in more cars sold for GM, but even if it did, it can't have been all that many or they'd keep advertising there.

In the meantime, this does show that GM is getting a little less tone-deaf when it comes to their bailout requests, which frankly, don't seem all that exorbitant when put next to AIG and Citi, and will probably keep more working class people employed in tough economic times.

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