Barracuda Networks TV Commercial Takes A Swing At Winning Over The C-Suite With Their Favorite Sport

To some people, golf is just a fun pastime often played by senior execs during the summer heat. To Barracuda Networks, it’s the perfect metaphor for success in business.

The Campbell, Calif.-based provider of security, networking and storage products is running a new TV commercial in which the hero could easily pass for the standard image of a CEO, CFO or other senior decision-maker taking to the links on a sunny day. Though his eyes are shaded by sunglasses, he looks focused and determined as he swings a club at a ball, which the company likens to the “ability to envision and execute with unwavering precision.”

Finding yourself in the sand trap, meanwhile, is likened to “adversity” in the enterprise, where “you have to be flexible to put yourself in a position to win.”

The use of golf imagery is no accident. The company is a key sponsor of the Barracuda Championship Golf Tournament, which is among the 47 stops on the PGA Tour and which has raised nearly $4 million for charity since 1999.

Behind the scenes, Barracuda Networks recently reported its technology had helped block 1.7 million phishing e-mails last month — arguably even better than managing to score a whole in one.