GoDaddy’s CEO discusses this year’s Super Bowl ad controversy.
GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving was on Fox & Friends this morning talking about the Super Bowl ad controversy. He claims the original ad and changing it was not a publicity stunt. (See video below.)
After watching the final commercial yesterday, I believe him when he says that nixing the first ad was not a publicity stunt. After all, the company ended up with a commercial that:
- Was produced with stock video footage
- Had voiceover from someone who had never done voiceover work before
- Didn’t include Danica Patrick, who was slated to star in her record 14th Super Bowl commercial
You can argue that the original ad was a publicity stunt in and of itself, but I think it’s safe to say the company didn’t plan to pull it. If it had, it would have had a better plan B.
I actually like the commercial GoDaddy ran, but it’s the type of commercial that doesn’t generate much buzz.
Singing Dogs says
That’s BS since who can make a commercial that fast?
Andrew Allemann says
Did you read the story? They used stock video footage and some guy from the ad firm did the voiceover.
Singing Dogs says
Imo that still doesn’t mean it wasn’t a PR stunt.
Andrew Allemann says
It shows that they didn’t plan to pull the commercial. Was the commercial itself a stunt, though? Absolutely. That’s the point of an edgy commercial.
Adam says
Well, admitting it wasn’t a stunt makes it a bad decision. Good work manning up. I’m not sure Bob woulda taken that same course, Humor will always offend someone. This time you picked the wrong group.
Jay Boucher says
Would have liked to have seen an ad that promoted not only Go Daddy but new gTLDs as well. For now the biggest tv exposure will be .buzz and Wheel of Fortune. Never thought .buzz target demo was the WOF crowd, but it’s a start…
PageHowe.com says
BIGGEST ad of the day was the BMW ad, …… oh yeah no one followed that, but the first 20 second when they had the today show folks talking about .com was priceless for verisign…. just think if they recapped the BILLION dollar companies that started with .coms in 94,95,96,97,98,99,00,01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10,11,12,13,14,15..
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Aaron P. says
It was interesting to see how the whole thing unfolded. The ad ran during the game just did not have the pizzazz to cut through the clutter to get consumers attention. I’m still trying to remember what that ad was really about. I only remember a guy at a desk with a computer.
With advertising you have to be rememberable. GoDaddy should reconsider doing the edgy adverting that established and built their brand. I’m a faithful GoDaddy customer still to this day, because I liked how the pushed the limits and did things their way. I wish more companies were like that. People like different!
Ultimately it was still really smart for them to offer the ad on the web that they pulled. Getting people to talk about you and or your product will create sales.