Monday 28 May 2012

GoDaddy, the Hot Girl and ???????


Go Daddy is one of the biggest names in website products out there. It’s the largest ICANN-accredited registrar in the world and manages over 45 million domain registrations. But what it’s known for is its sexually aggressive advertising. Since 2005, it’s been a Super Bowl commercial staple.  It always using some form of the “hot girl” in its ad campaigns, sometimes including  household name stars like Danica Patrick. Critics have called  Go Daddy ’s advertising sexist and pandering, while the CEO Bob Parsons calls it fun and edgy.


The types of services  Go Daddy  offers are a lot like medical supplies. It’s not a discretionary purchase. If you want a website, you need a domain and hosting. Period. So when you’re enticing me to buy it, I just want something that does what it says it will at a price I can live with. That’s the reason I’ve used Go Daddy for some of my domain registrations in the past. About once every two months or so, it offers $1 new domain registrations. A domain is a domain wherever you get it from so if I can get one for $1 instead of $11, I’ll take it.
The more I think about it, the more I think that the hot girl campaign isn’t about selling through sex at all. I think it’s about getting attention for the brand, whether negative or not. There’s a saying that no publicity is bad publicity. When you think about it, that’s what’s made  Go Daddy ’ brand name. We hear about its sexual advertising campaigns more than any product it offers. 12 year old boys with raging hormones don’t usually buy website products and nobody pays for advertising that doesn’t bring results. So I’m convinced this is a part of the plan. Otherwise, I really want to know what the plan is.

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