GoDaddy Puppy Ad is disturbing and hard for web designers to explain. What were they thinking when making this puppy commercial for The Super Bowl. They’ve had an ad or two before- I know many of my women clients wanted to see GoDaddy end the bodice-ripping females in their ads. I’m truly thankful that Jean Claude Van Damme isn’t in this GoDaddy ad as his creep-factor was off the scale!
Ad Taints GoDaddy’s Services
As a dog lover (we’ve got 3 rescue dogs) I find GoDaddy’s use of a puppy disturbing. No one likes to see a dog in distress or being so aggressively exploited. The shock factor (and this even surpasses the creep factor of Jean Claude Van Damme’s ads), is that the puppy looks like they are about to be rescued when SNAP! he’s traveled all the way back to the a puppy mill whose one goal is the “get ’em sold.” That’s pretty brutal. Dark humor? This may be one ad that’s going to need some explaining.
What does the ad say about GoDaddy and their services? I think the ad misrepresents the brand because it has very little to do with what GoDaddy does. I was eating lunch and watching Access Hollywood when they were discussing the ad. I guess a couple of tinsel-town hosts are pretty much average non-techy folk — they couldn’t even explain what GoDaddy does for it’s business (It’s something website-y, right?). Did they confuse a whole segment of America who now may think make websites for shady businesses?
GoDaddy’s Competitors Already Rally
I think the worse thing about this Godaddy puppy ad — and it won’t be the screams from PETA or the ASPCA — is that people will think that GoDaddy’s services are for disreputable people, low-lifes– the kind of cruel and heartless people who run puppy mills. Yuck, who wants to be associated with that! I got a good laugh out of the Google search for the GoDaddy puppy video– Host Gator, a competitor, has on their website that they “love puppies”— It’s a cartoon of Snappy their alligator mascot with a puppy. I don’t think I’d let my dog play with an alligator, but it’s less disturbing than the GoDaddy ad and pretty funny how they are aligning against the backlash that’s bound to hit GoDaddy.
GoDaddy Puppy Ad Too Hard to Explain to Clients
GoDaddy may have just crossed the boundary between getting good publicity and bad publicity. I really hope GoDaddy issues a statement because I’d love to hear how they explain this ad. PLEASE issue a statement… as a web designer who has recommended the quality of GoDaddy’s services for years I’d like to know how to explain this ad to my clients! We may be at the point where they are beyond explanation.
