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Christians Bailing on GoDaddy Due to ‘Immoral’ Advertising
GoDaddy’s famously risque Super Bowl ads always pull lots of eyeballs, but the company’s latest spots may have resulted in a little too much attention of the wrong kind.
Entrepreneur Brian Harrell, who manages hosting services for dozens of Christian churches and faith-based organizations and uses GoDaddy to host over 160 domains, says he’s pulled several of his clients off of GoDaddy’s servers after receiving numerous complaints about the company’s racy ads that aired during Sunday’s game.
"I know they’re trying to make sales, but that kind of content is not going to fly in the Christian community," he says.
During Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast, the domain registrar and hosting company ran two sexually suggestive ads featuring auto racer Danica Patrick — one featuring Patrick and a few busty models tossing around double-entendres about their breast size, and another featuring Patrick stripping down and stepping into a shower.
In the hours after the game ended, Harrell says he began receiving complaints from his Christian clients, who demanded their hosting and e-mail services be moved to a different provider.
And the calls kept coming. By Tuesday, Harrell says he has orders to move 20 of his clients’ domains off of GoDaddy’s hosting service and another 40 off of its web-based e-mail service. He anticipates more calls as word spreads across the Christian community.
GoDaddy has developed a great deal of notoriety for its Super Bowl advertising. The company has ads rejected by broadcasters multiple times for being too racy, and even had one of its ads pulled mid-game before it aired. The company also makes non-sexually suggestive ads for NASCAR and other televised sports with larger Christian fanbases.
In addition to working with churches and faith-based organizations, Harrell runs a sales portal for the wedding and event planning industry at alltimefavorites.com. He has been a GoDaddy customer for almost ten years, so he’s more than familiar with the company’s sexually charged ads. But after seeing Danicka Patrick showering and nearly showing off her bare breasts, he decided to put his foot down.
"They have to be careful. I think they definitely crossed the line in this case," he says.
Harrell also sent a strongly-worded e-mail to the company, which he provided to Wired.com:
We have clients leaving GoDaddy e-mail and servers due to your non-Christian advertising and exploitation of females in your advertising.
We currently have over 160 domains with you.
Please re-think how your morals and values are looking to the public. It seems that the GoDaddy President seems like a bit of a sex addict or pervert.
I’m assuming you will just respond in "corporate speak" that "I’m sorry you feel that way. It was not our intention to offend (translation to blah blah blah) and we will take your comments under advisement (meaning we will delete your email shortly as we really don’t give a crap about morals and Christians, only sales, no really, we don’t give a crap.)
I have been in marketing for over 25 years and you really should PRINT this and bring this to your management meeting and read it word-for-word (what really will happen? You will bring it up at the meeting maybe, and everyone will laugh like crazy but inside they know this is a disease that will keep eating at the foundation of GoDaddy until someday it does some serious damage - or when you ALL have to be judged for your sins when you die)
Sincerely,
Brian Harrell
The company responded with a boilerplate letter, which reads in part:
Although we wish your opinion of our commercials was a favorable one, please know your feedback is highly valued. At GoDaddy.com, we strongly believe that the freedom to express one’s opinions is one of the defining factors that makes the United States a great nation.
When Harrell contacted us our first thought was, Christians are using GoDaddy.com for hosting? Haven’t they seen the ads?
Harrell, who is a Christian himself, says he’s no stranger to the ads or to the suggestive nature of advertising in general. But the ads are costing him business, and he feels it’s time the company owns up to what he calls its "immoral and irresponsible" public image.
But what impact will it make on the world’s largest registrar of domains?
GoDaddy creates its ads in-house, and it does so on the cheap. The spots are incredibly lucrative. According to The Arizona Republic, the Scotsdale, Arizona company’s hometown paper, GoDaddy’s ads last Sunday resulted in a flood of new customers — a 110 percent increase over the number of orders it received after the 2008 Super Bowl.
The ads were hugely popular. TiVo says GoDaddy’s "Enchanced" ad (the one showing women joking about their breast size) was the game’s most-viewed spot. The Associated Press speculates it’s because the ad aired during the final moments of the tense game, but it’s also the fourth-most-watched ad at Hulu.com’s Super Bowl ads microsite. GoDaddy’s other ad, featuring Patrick in the shower, ranked at #15 according to Hulu. The "Shower" spot ran during the game’s first half.
Even though GoDaddy may think he’s small potatoes, Harrell is going to continue his campaign.
He plans to expand his business this year by adding between 1,000 and 2,000 churches to his online directory, and he’s not about to recommend GoDaddy’s services to any of them.
"(GoDaddy is) going to lose customers like us and every other church we come in contact with," he says.
See Also:
* Super Bowl XLIII Ads: Teased, Remixed, Too Hot for TV
* Bruce Springsteen Enjoys Super Bowl Sales Bump
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