ExxonMobil Ads for the Masters Highlighted Mathematics

April 12, 2007

Last weekend's Masters brought together a host of the world's top golfers for several days of intense competition. During its broadcast, three ads from ExxonMobil spotlighted the critical role of mathematics in golf, in energy production, in science, in life. Thirty to sixty seconds long, the ads explicitly promoted mathematics, in both dramatic and whimsical ways.

Defending Masters champion Phil Mickelson starred in the ad "Swing." ExxonMobil's other math-promoting ads were "Eraser" and "Try". The message? "Math and science are everywhere."

To see the ads online, go to http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/campaign/masters_2007.asp. Along with ExxonMobil, Mickelson and his wife Amy created the Math and Science Teachers Academy, where elementary school teachers can learn new ways to inspire their students.

The consultant behind these ads was mathematician Douglas N. Arnold of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, at the University of Minnesota. Viewers can't really see the mathematical equations in the smaller versions shown on the web, but if they tuned into the Masters Tournament, they caught glimpses of the Navier-Stokes equation, Fourier series, Maxwell's equations, and more.

Arnold also recommends the accompanying web page on the "Science of a Drive."

ExxonMobil's support for mathematics and science was also highlighted in the Math in the News article of March 19, 2007, titled "National Initiative Hopes to Improve Mathematics Education Even More."