GoDaddy, once again, is getting a lot of press for its Super Bowl ad. How much of it was planned?
If you pay for a Super Bowl commercial and no one talks about it before or after the big game, you got ripped off.
GoDaddy discovered this many years ago and has mastered the art of getting extra impressions of its ads and Monday morning water cooler talk. GoDaddy’s ads are often criticized and sometimes ranked as the “worst” ads on the Super Bowl. Yet “worst” is a heck of a lot better than the middle-of-the-road commercials that no one talks about.
This week it debuted its planned Super Bowl ad on Today. The controversial ad spoofed other lost dog commercials. This ad ended with an unexpected twist — A GoDaddy customer was happy when the dog returned, because she had just sold him through her website.
People talked about the ad. A lot. In bad terms. By the end of the day, GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving said the company would not air the ad on Sunday.
Given GoDaddy’s previous advertising antics, the initial thought that popped into many minds was if this was a planned stunt.
Was it? I’m a bit torn.
GoDaddy had to predict the backlash the commercial would cause. Selling puppies? On the internet? Yes, taken in the context of the commercials it spoofs, you can give it a laugh. Yet the commercial suggests that people can use GoDaddy’s web presence services to do things that people hate. Not exactly the best message, and perhaps where the commercial really goes awry.
If this commercial aired five years ago, I’d have no doubt that it was all a planned publicity stunt. But there’s a new CEO at the helm of GoDaddy who doesn’t seem to gravitate toward the all-publicity-is-good-publicity mantra.
More importantly, GoDaddy is in the process of going public. Does it really want to rock the boat with negative publicity at this point?
GoDaddy has once again gotten people talking about it. This time, I’m not so sure if it’s going exactly according to script.
J says
I say planned. Who can blame them with all of the coverage they received?
Philip says
The puppy would have made a nice pot roast!!
Brad Cook says
It was not planned. They new boys want the public to respect the company and look at it in a more professional light.