Planned or not?: GoDaddy’s Super Bowl ad switcheroo
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 regarding it ahead of or following 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 regarding.
This stretch 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 client was happy when the dog returned, since she had just sold him through her website.
People talked regarding the ad. A lot. In bad terms. By the end of the day, GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving stated the firm 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 fresh 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 regarding it. This time, I’m not so sure if it’s going exactly as stated by script.
