Did you catch the GoDaddy at on Superbowl Sunday? I faintly remember there being a big hoopla last year over GoDaddy’s ad, that it got yanked before getting a second airing. I don’t recall ever seeing that ad, but I did catch their new one. I know they were going for shock value and tasteless, but personally, I just found the ad pointless. Maybe I had to care enough about the ad last year to get the ad this year.
The first time it aired I only caught part of it so I wasn’t sure what it was even about. I guess the ad worked (in a way) because I jumped on the internet and pulled up Godaddy.com to see if I could figure out what the ad was about. What they had was a slew of them in various stages of rejection by ABC.
I downloaded a couple just to see what was so controversial that ABC would reject them. Each ad came with a form to fill out to provide feedback. The options were either you liked the ad, didn’t like the ad, had no opinion, or were offended. Mostly I had no opinion, but, again, I just found the ads pointless.
Using sex to sell a product or service is nothing new. Beer commercials have been doing this for years. The difference is, beer commercials usually tie their product in with the hot babes in bikini’s. Oh, and they’re usually funny, too.
What I found most interesting that night was not the GoDaddy ads, and not that they were rejected by ABC, but by what came after the Superbowl in the opening moments of Grey’s Anatomy. The shower scene dream sequence was, in my opinion, just as sexual as any of the GoDaddy ads. Why did GoDaddy’s ads get rejected, but ABC airs a scene in a popular show with just as much steaminess?
Maybe it’s the Janet Jackson effect. Maybe ABC does not want to risk offending the NFL, in that a commercial is NFL’s time, after the game is ABC’s. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the pointlessness of the ad, which had nothing going for it except the sexual component. At least the opening scene in Gray’s Anatomy had a point in that it was the lead in to a pretty darn good episode… with a skinny Christiana Ricci, too!
Speaking of pointlessness, we all have our moments. See this post as a perfect example.