Branding publication Brandweek has had enough of GoDaddy’s silly Super Bowl advertising antics.
GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons knows how to play the media. He’s received millions of dollars worth of free publicity for his commercials. Not because they’re good commercials, but because they’re just edgy enough to get banned from the Super Bowl. He did it last year and is repeating the magic again this year. He claims that his advertising submissions for this month’s Super Bowl have been rejected 10 times.
An editorial in BrandWeek suggests it’s time to shut up Bob. The editorial makes some excellent points:
“You might remember that last year the folks at GoDaddy squeezed just about every drop of media “shock” over their commercial featuring pneumatically blessed model Candice Michelle . . . The spot was poorly conceived and directed, but that hardly mattered. GoDaddy got to natter on about the “censorship” they faced when Fox (which broadcast the ’05 Super Bowl) came to its senses and cancelled the commercial’s second airing. The old reliables in the mainstream media gave them millions in free publicity.”
Good points. The commercials are rather lame. Anyone can put a hot model on screen with a lame script and grab attention. It’s not like the commercials were unique or interesting. The editorial continues:
“Oh, sure, the domain name registry’s president, Bob Parsons, is already trying to whip up more free publicity and is decrying the trouble his “cutting edge” advertising is having with ABC’s standards and practices. But you and I know better. You and I know that Parsons is just the latest opportunist to discover that even a lazily manufactured “scandal” will keep his name out there a little longer.”
Sadly, GoDaddy’s antics will continue to be picked up by the mainstream press. Stupid things get a lot of press. And I can’t blame Bob Parsons for taking advantage of that.
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