While most of the analysis of the marketing consequences of the scandals faced by Tiger Woods since November 2009 has focused on what this new world would mean for Woods himself, the great Stuart Elliot points out that the golfer is not, in fact, the only athlete affected by the biggest sports story of the last six months. Elliot convincingly makes the case that marketers, newly sobered by the Tiger Woods endorsement experience, are now embracing safe endorsers, most of whom take the form of retired athletes. Here's Elliot on Yogi Berra-the 85 year-old former Yankees catcher-and his new endorsement deal:

The campaign, now under way, is for the iXP Corporation, a consulting firm that specializes in helping public safety and security organizations with emergency-response systems. The campaign, by an agency in Ewing, N.J., named Stimulus Brand Communications, is centered on a three-year endorsement deal between iXP and LTD Enterprises, the Berra family company that oversees Mr. Berra?s business interests and his Web site.

The ads feature photographs of Mr. Berra and offer words of wisdom in the form of Yogi-isms. Some of the sayings have been quoted for many years, while others have been written for the campaign. The idea the campaign seeks to convey is that iXP is as consistent, reliable and trustworthy as Mr. Berra, whose decades of achievement in baseball, principally with the New York Yankees, led to his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

Plus, the headline-making trouble that so many younger, active athletes keep getting into off the field has led marketers to favor older athletes whose personalities and peccadilloes are already known.

In numerous instances, those athletes are, like Mr. Berra, long retired. Other examples include baseball players like Cal Ripken Jr., football players like Joe Montana and golfers like Jack Nicklaus.

In fact, iXP started looking into hiring a celebrity endorser "just at the height of the Tiger Woods problem for Accenture and Nike," says William E. Metro, president and chief operating officer at iXP in Cranbury, N.J.

With so many of iXP's potential clients in law enforcement, "we can't just pick any celebrity because he has a name," Mr. Metro says.

"We knew what a problem it would be if we picked the wrong celebrity and Commissioner Kelly says, 'I remember when we arrested that guy,'" he adds, referring to Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner.

One need look no further than Betty White's starring turn in Snickers' Super Bowl commercial to witness this trend in action. This commercial, of course, thrust White back into the national consciousness, culminating in her acclaimed hosting gig of Saturday Night Live. I don't know if we'll necessarily see Yogi hosting SNL anytime soon, but movement for reliable endorsers continues.

And if your business is, in fact, looking for a celebrity endorser-safe or edgy-make sure to check out Brand Affinity Technologies, a new service which I first learned of from Wired. Here's an overview from the June 2010 issues which seems to be unavailable online:

For every Derek Jeter streaking across a Gatorade bottle, there are dozens of other great athletes like Giants pitcher Matt Cain who can only dream of selling their likeness to a sports drink. Brand Affinity Technologies hopes to change that. The company connects athletes to clients large and small-from AT&T to the local Nissan dealer. BAT's system is the Moneyball of endorsement deals, extracting value from previously overlooked players.

With BAT making endorsers more accessible to even small businesses,would you consider hiring a celebrity to endorse your business? How would this method fit in with the rest of your marketing plan?