What GoDaddy Got Right In The Puppy Mill Ad Fiasco
By now, you may have heard of the controversy surrounding an upcoming ad at the Super Bowl this Sunday. GoDaddy is known for controversial ads involving scantily-clad women, but once again they've angered animal advocates.
The new ad depicts a lost puppy making its way home - only to be shipped off to some unknown party that purchased the puppy off the internet:
(Photo: Twitter.com/GoDaddy)
In addition, they actually created a PSA about animal adoption.
Instead of doing what SeaWorld did to combat negative publicity - deleting Facebook comments, blocking people from their social media accounts and creating a "Truth Team" - GoDaddy is thanking people for giving them feedback.
GoDaddy says they were just trying to show how they help small businesses succeed. The ad itself is definitely a fail. If you have to explain yourself after people watch the ad, it just doesn't work. There are a few ways GoDaddy can redeem themselves: pull the ad, change the ending (probably not enough time to do that) or end the ad with a "Please adopt" message. My recommendation? Pull the ad and run the PSA instead. (UPDATE: Go Daddy heard the feedback loud and clear and has decided to pull the ad!)
(Photo: Twitter.com/GoDaddy)
I, for one, give them credit for actually responding to the feedback on Twitter rather than just ignoring it, which hasn't been working for SeaWorld.