Backlash grows over Frisco-based Good Good Golf and Calloway ad

What's the impact of an ad? 

It's a question making the rounds in many circles as backlash grows over a 15-second spot created by Frisco-based Good Good Golf to showcase a new co-branded driver from equipment maker Callaway.

The ad begins with one of the founders of Good Good, Garrett Clark, shoulder-checking a female golfer, another Good Good staffer, Alexis Miestowski, a former Division I golfer, to the ground.

"I felt nauseous," The Family Place CEO Tiffany Tate said. "That was my first gut-level reaction when I saw the ad."

The ad concludes with the Good Good content creator standing over Miestowski on the ground and warning in a menacing voice, "Don't touch my driver."

Now, Tate is sharing a warning of her own.

"It's not funny, it's dangerous," Tate said.

And Tate should know. She's spent decades working as both a social worker and at The Family Place, helping survivors and educating communities about the insidious nature of abuse.

"Right now, we see a woman murdered every few days in this nation, and now children are being murdered," Tate said. "And we're not screaming about that from the rooftops that it's not okay!"

Lulled by the constant barrage of media influences, Tate worries that the culture is becoming numb to violence.

"This is being normalized," Tate said. "And you're almost ashamed when you stand up and say `it's not okay.'"

With backlash growing, Good Good, a golf-focused media and apparel company, and Callaway both shared online apologies, with Good Good writing: "We posted a video to our channels that ultimately depicted actions that are not aligned with our values as a brand. We have since taken that content down, and sincerely apologize."

Callaway Golf CEO Chip Brewer also apologized on Tuesday and admitted that his company approved the ad before it was shared online. 

Brewer's statement reads, in part: "That approval should never have happened. Mistakes were made, and we are taking the matter very seriously. I want to make it clear that we sincerely apologize for the video."

Neither Callaway nor Good Good immediately responded to CBS News Texas' requests for additional comment. Is the apology enough?

"The damage is done," says Tate, who called the situation disheartening.

The Family Place is just one of the local nonprofits working to end domestic violence, serving some 40,000 individuals a year who are working to escape intimate partner violence. Services include a 24-hour staffed hotline and emergency shelter. Still, it is often not enough.

"In 2023, 161 Texans were murdered," Tate said. "They were murdered as a result of domestic violence and intimate partner violence. And so people can look at this ad and say, 'Well, all he did was push her down.' But... what are the beliefs that led to him pushing her down?"

Domestic violence, they warn, has never been a laughing matter, and violence against women should never become a marketing tool.

"But I'm going to assume that the apology that was made by the founders of these companies is sincere," Tate said. "But what really needs to happen is they need to walk alongside a provider like walk alongside The Family Place and do the work together."

So, she's inviting the leadership of Good Good Golf to turn their "bad bad" idea into lasting change.

"Not only for the people at the executive level to understand the nature of violence and how this behavior contributed to it," said Tate, but for the wider community as well.

"When you become numb to it, you're not looking to help someone who has experienced this," she said. "You're not looking to say, 'Hey, I got to figure out a way to help you.' And you have to be aware of that in order to make meaningful change."

Anyone needing help can reach The Family Place 24-hour hotline at (214) 941-1991.