Animal rights group moves domain names to competitor.
Making good on its promise, PETA has moved its domains (well at least peta.org) away from Go Daddy. The domain name is now registered at Register.com.
This whole elephant shooting video is obviously a hotly debated subject.
Some are arguing this is a different type of controversy than Go Daddy’s commercials.
I’m not so sure, and we’ll see how this plays out.
But I’m reminded of Bob Parsons’ keynote at DOMAINfest last month. I’m paraphrasing from memory here. Basically he said there are people who really like you or your business, a bunch who are ambivalent, and then a small minority who really hate you.
It’s those that really hate you that are your key to success. Keep them drummed up.
I wonder if he even thought about potential backlash. He posted a video of a leopard attack/kill in the past and there was less criticism at the time.
@ Elliot – yeah, there was no backlash about that and that was a year ago. Is it because it was a leopard and Westerners are scare of leopards but not elephants? Or it just didn’t bubble up.
Actually I think the controversy is more due to the fact that Elephants are being killed for their ivory tusks and their numbers are dwindling astronomically, and instead of trying to help preserve them, he’s just shot one using a lame excuse.
I’m sure Parsons would like to believe otherwise, but PETA is a very small part of the public anger directed at that video. He totally misjudged this.
For me it was more about the blatant logo hats on the hungry villagers as they carved up the meat – Parsons taking total joy in his company’s logo on their heads as he pretended to be “the great white hunter” bringing much needed protein to the people of Zimbabwe whose dictatorship makes it possible for rich white men to buy licenses to kill elephants to feed the citizenry.
The strategy of keeping the small minority of haters riled up makes sense, but from the comments on the Mashable post regarding this, I think a good portion of the ambivalent middle that this reaches will also be riled up.
Like you mentioned, Andrew, I think a some of the outrage comes from the fact that elephants aren’t scary to most people. Sure, they can cause great damage, but I wouldn’t have a flight reaction if I saw one at a distance.
I had a similar reaction while watching the Sarah Palin reality show where she hunts wildlife in the Alaskan wilderness. I’m sure what she killed on the show was eaten, but it was all so ridiculously contrived to appeal to her base, that something just seemed off. I got the same empty feeling when I saw the villagers with GoDaddy hats (though it was less).
http://www.mediaite.com/online/go-daddy-ceo-learns-its-not-a-great-pr-move-to-shoot-an-elephant-to-death-and-videotape-it/
David, I like the zinger:
“Of course, there is one surefire way to get out of this tricky public relations minefield. Go Daddy should release an official version of the video that ends mid way through, telling people to go to their website for a chance at maybe seeing Danica Patrick’s boobs! Everyone likes those commercials, right? Right?“
“Of everything I do this is the most rewarding”? –
You’re lucky you’ve got a good reputation mgmt. team Bob, this was not a smart idea – PETA will have a field day too. you have more than enough resources to remove the problem animals to a reserve or park.The rock music background to villagers butchering the animal ,(albeit for food)(with Go Daddy hats?) was a major mistake. I wouldn’t even expect that from Ted Nugent. Bob – this will be your “elephant in the room” for sure. Better get on the Charity Bandwagon.
Why should anyone care about what PETA thinks? Type into your computer, Peta kills animals. See if you like what you see.
Leave it to animal rights extreamists to make this something that it is not. I have read in so many posts about this and the same holds true amongst them all. Animal rights extreamists are insane, self centered and re tarded.
We just heard about this. We are immediately removing our business from his company.
I would have never expected such a bad move from a man that constantly posts videos on his website to help people learn how to succeed in their life…
I have to tell you that people will overlook plenty of wrongs for a low price.
We’ve been able to keep some customers from going to godaddy if we do two things. First we come within a few dollars of their price. Two we show them Bob’s page and how he treats women. This works really well with woman registering for churches.
But the price is is the gun. This is the equivalent of what Al Capone used to say something like “you get more with a gun and a smile than a gun alone”.
That being said Bob is controversial and that is his brand.
The bulk of his customers won’t pull any significant number of domains. If anything if this breaks to network news he will pick up more business. I can’t imagine the notoriety not helping him. People will get mad and huff and puff but in the end they won’t put in the effort to switch is my prediction.
This story is on the local station for Phoenix. The clips they show totally water down the event actually (which is no surprise because it’s FOX). They don’t show the music and they don’t show the hats in the video piece. Bob claims he did it because a villager asked him to and he happened to have a gun that can kill elephants and a camera crew handy.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/29/godaddycom-ceo-shooting-killing-elephant-zimbabwe/
@Larry
Sounds Fair & Balanced to me 🙂
@ David J Castello –
Sounds Fair & Balanced to me 🙂
Brings up another thing Bob has consistently gotten away with that’s generally a no-no for CEOs: he’s not shy about his political beliefs. And Fox News is his friend.
Well, Peta is as bad as Bob Parson really.
Money and idleness breeds nothing
but arrogance and contempt.
@Andrew
Seriously, I’m one of the most Liberal minded guys out there. I’ve supported Parsons with everything he’s done up to this point. When people slammed him for “exploiting” women I defended him (one only has to look at Coca-Cola ads 100 years ago to see that utilizing beautiful women to promote a product is as old as the hills). But there’s something about that video that really, really bothered me and I’m usually the last to criticize anything controversial. I was in rock bands for years and have pretty much seen it, done it and there is certainly no halo upon my head, but this crossed a line that is hard to defend.
I’m still thinking those godaddy girls could breach and jump ship. Might be better for their careers. Maybe cheaper for them in the long run to breach contract. I know they are all upset at Bob right now and having some interesting dinner conversations in their homes tonight.
Check out this funny video PETA made: http://meat.org
I’m not a big fan of Parsons, and this move of his was idiotic, but to put a single elephant hunt into perspective, 200,000 deer were killed by hunters last year. In New York State.
@Gordon: Don’t confuse the issue.
Deer are not endangered, and culling the herd is fine. Actually it’s humane so most don’t starve to death.
Whether or not Zimbabwe states that elephants are endangered is not the point. In reality they are endangered. And there are a number of ways to keep elephants away without the need to slaughter them.
This was simply a carefully choreographed PR stunt by Godaddy, nothing more.
@Josh: In Sarah Palin’s case the NRA and regular hunters were critical because it was obvious she knew little about gun safety, or even if she had fired a rifle before. Of course it’s not surprising that she didn’t see it coming because she’s an idiot.
The Godaddy folks are way too smart to have not calculated this PR campaign in every detail. Including how they planned to respond to the uproar once it dies down.
Mark my words, in the next few weeks there will be some pre-planned “humanitarian” donation by Godaddy framed as a mea culpa. And all the blogs will print articles saying “See? You all overreacted to that whole elephant thing. Bob’s a great guy!”
Between the girls, the hunting, and the ridiculous machismo, I can’t help but get the feeling that Mr. Parsons is compensating for something.
There are other things one can do in Zimbabwe for the right price, too.
PETA is full of hypocrites. They talk animal rights, but they MURDERED 97% of the adoptable dogs & cats brought to their Norfolk, VA HQ last year with their “last resort euthanasia” program and they can’t start a shelter with a $25 million annual operating budget? Give me a break. At least this guy has the balls to stand up to these hypocrites in public.
lets not worry about the villagers. They don’t have a McDonalds. If their food gets destroyed they don’t eat. Can any of you relate to that? Do you care? Or do you just care about animals? I understand fully the importance of preserving the animal kingdom but lets not be insane about it. To be an extreamist in anything is a distructive buisness.
And the jack complaining about deer being killed by hunters. Some of you eat beef, some of us eat venison. Get a life. You animal rights extreamist will complain just to hear yourself talk. 99% of the time you haven’t an educated thought between the whole lot of you. Why don’t you spend the time to actually learn something real before you open the slap box.
And lets not support PETA. Peta is a money grubbing society of murderouse losers. Look up petakillsanimals. Check it out and if you support them after that your a sick individual.
“lets not worry about the villagers. They don’t have a McDonalds. If their food gets destroyed they don’t eat. Can any of you relate to that? Do you care?”
Yes. For the same money, Parsons could have transported TEN elephants.
To pretend that it is “kill them or let people starve” is a false dichotomy, and really simplistic thinking. Problems of elephant/human conflict have well-known non-kill solutions. You don’t see Thailand running Indian safaris, nor many other African countries whose governments are not kleptocracies.
Look, Parsons went there to hunt, and making a video of the event with an AC/DC soundtrack doesn’t feed anyone. His own story is contradictory concerning his intent anyway. To put a pretty face on it, he claims that they only take bull elephants, to avoid disruption of the elephant social structure.
From this, you are supposed to believe that female and juvenile elephants don’t feed on crops, I guess. Parsons really thinks people are that stupid.
“And lets not support PETA”
It really has nothing to do with PETA. I’m not particularly fond of that group, but framing this as some sort of issue between Parsons and PETA is dumb.
If Parsons were strangling puppies, PETA would also protest. That does not mean puppy strangling is somehow okay.
He can afford better blog trolls than this.
@Rod ….. learn how to spell “extremist” if you are going to be using that word liberally like Fox News does every day just for sensationalism.
In fact, I’d call you an extremist for not wanting to preserve the elephant’s life.
I agree with you about Peta though. They are just ridiculous and childish.
Regarding caring more about animals, I’d say I put a elephant’s life on equal ground as a human’s life. Actually, I’d say that about a deer or dog as well…..but that does not mean I would not shoot a deer or rabbit for food. 🙂
.
In fact Rod….if I were hungry enough I suppose I’d eat a human too. So would you. 🙂
Rich guy using all the PR spin he can to justify stupidity. Just take a picture, no need to shoot a rare creature for food; pure nonsense.
(edit: remove ad)
Where are the tusks BOB I hope they are not at your home! it is a crime to import Elephant tusks to the USA.
Bill Gates doesnt use his wealth to go to a impoverished country to kill an endangered species, to feed the townsfolks, and toss around his Microsoft hats and t-shirts, in the name of humanitarianism.
@ Adam
I respect your concern for endangerd speciies … but Bill Gates ain’t no angel…he had spearheaded what is probably of the most widespread & systematic monoplolistic business practices of US technology co’s ever (thus far)…until the anti-trust regulators & sanctions came down tough on Microsoft.
Funny enough dr Bob re editted the video a lil . gone is the ac/dc tune , gone is the close ups of the villagers wearing GD baseball caps . Gone are the still of dr Bob looking like the great white hunter. foot down on the corpse while holding a gun…
Update:
https://domainnamewire.com/2011/04/08/bob-parsons-threatens-copyright-infringement-over-elephant-hunting-videos/