I turned on the television the other day and found myself looking at an astronaut, descending a ladder from the iconic image of a lunar lander. He walks across the surface, obvious to anyone who saw the footage of the original lunar landing that this one is definitely in a studio, then draws a golf club, knocking a ball into orbit, or even further. Tiger Woods raises his visor and grins.

Tiger Woods has a Gatorade named after him. I remember staring at the screen and wondering if sanity had finally been given the holiday everyone claims has already happened. I bring this up to friends, family and associates. Everyone responds the same way, either indifference or annoyance.

This raises the question that any consumer should ask themselves: how much is the message that a celebrity buys a product worth to them? It's not an easy question to answer, there are a lot of things to weigh before just leaping on one or the other idea.

Tiger Woods selling golf balls or golf clubs or, frankly, any golf bag accessory or piece of golf apparel makes sense. He is a golfer. He is one of the preimminent names in golf today, giving the sport a face even to the person most apathetic to who shot the lowest on tournament day. The non golfer will ask "Did Tiger win again?" So, his face on every piece of golf memoribilia and accessory to go in a golf bag or around it makes sense.

But how about Buick? Do we care that Tiger Woods has a Buick? Do we even believe that he's not out there tooling around in a European luxury car of some kind? I've read several opinion articles stating this very question and I find myself believing that this could pose a problem. It's gone too far in many ways, useless in others.

The fact is, there is an easy doubt in the mind of many who take the time to think after seeing these commercials. Tiger Woods is not a mechanic. He may drive a Buick. We know he uses Nike balls and people buy them, though everywhere I looked made it clear that Titleist balls are still the leader in sales. I have yet to hear of a player switching to Nike balls or any other golf bag accessory that Tiger uses and finding that they suddenly play like he does. If you do, email us. We want to know.

Celebrities, whether the sports or the entertainment variety, serve a purpose. They put a face on things. They give a voice to a mute product. We have to decide whether the face shown is true to the product's nature. We have to decide if the voice is saying anything of value. No matter what, personal research time is always well spent.

So, the question, while mildly complex in its nature, is simple in many ways. If Lorena Ochoa or one of her counterparts on the tour circuit is shown wearing some stylish or shockingly different piece of ladies golf apparel or using some piece of golf bag accessory that you've never seen, will that influence you? Will you have to have the clothes or the accessories of the golf pro darling of the day?

This can be tempting, but when shopping for golf apparel or accessories to line the pockets of your golf bag, I stand by the recommendation that it doesn't matter if it works for Tiger or Lorena or anyone else. It must work for you, or it will be gathering dust or waiting on the table at a yard sale soon enough.