Tiger Woods' sponsors taking a timeout

as tiger woods uses silence to deal with the uproar over his alleged infidelities, his sponsors apparently are following suit, quietly not running his ads until the worst is over.

rick burton, onetime brand manager for miller beer and former chief marketing officer for the u.s. olympic committee, doesn't think this means tiger is no longer a bulletproof brand. ugg boots sale uk

"if a sponsor cuts him loose, that makes it look like the relationship was tenuous to begin with," burton said wednesday. "i womens ugg classic short don't think accenture, nike or gillette want to do that. sometimes what they'll do is take an athlete and put him into a probation period, a quiet window."

and for woods the ad window has been very quiet. according to data compiled by the nielsen ratings company, no woods ads have appeared on television since nov. 29, two days after he crashed his cadillac suv buy ugg boots online outside his home in florida.

according to forbes, woods has endorsement deals worth $110 million with accenture, nike, pepsico inc.'s gatorade (which is discontinuing its tiger focus drink), tag heuer watches, electronic women's ugg arts inc., upper deck, netjets, tlc vision corp. and gillette. although attempts to reach nike, accenture and pepsico wednesday were unsuccessful, no spokesman from any of the companies connected to woods has indicated the deals are in trouble.

yet.

burton suggests that's a good strategy. "for example," he said, "gillette might run roger federer ads or derek jeter ugg persephone sandal ads as opposed to running all three. maybe tag heuer will run only maria sharapova instead of tiger and maria."

still, negative reaction continues to boil up. on wednesday, rep. joe baca (d-rialto) dropped his effort to honor bailey button tiger woods with a congressional gold medal that would have recognized the golfer for good sportsmanship and breaking down barriers in the sport.

but pop culture critic david rosen says everyone needs to calm down. "embarrassing sexual indiscretions are as american as apple pie," he said.

take the case of the lakers' kobe bryant, who was accused of sexual assault in colorado in 2003. bryant admitted to having a sexual encounter with a hotel concierge, but the charges eventually were dropped.

stacey pilcher, the phoenix-based owner of cheap uggs a strategic brand and marketing firm who has dealt with ping international golf clubs, says there are similarities between bryant and woods: both are superstars ugg classic short who came in with untarnished images.