The
GoDaddy ad slated to run during Super Bowl XLIX "created so much outrage when it was previewed online" yesterday the company "decided hours later that it would not air," according to Ryan Parker of the L.A. TIMES.
GoDaddy "was set to air a 30-second spot called 'Journey Home,' which follows the arduous travels of a puppy that makes its way home after being separated from its owners." At the end of the ad, the puppy "arrives, and its owners are joyous -- not because they loved and missed their pet but rather because they had just sold the animal online and could now deliver it." Animal lovers and animal rescue organizations "blasted the ad, saying it evoked puppy mills."
GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving in a statement said that the company "did not expect the ad to strike that kind of chord with so many people." Irving: "We underestimated the emotional response. And we heard that loud and clear" (
L.A. TIMES, 1/28). Adweek Editor Lisa Granatstein said, “As far as I can tell, there has never been an ad pulled from the Super Bowl. This is really quite a situation on
GoDaddy’s hands” (
“GMA,” ABC, 1/28). AD AGE's Jeanine Poggi noted
GoDaddy will replace the spot with one Irving "hopes will make viewers laugh."
GoDaddy also "pulled the video down from YouTube" (
ADAGE.com, 1/27). In Chicago, Phil Thompson notes the puppy in the ad upon making his way home "finds himself loaded into a van marked 'Gabby's Goldens' as Gabby yells 'Ship 'em out!'" Before the van's door slams, viewers "catch a glimpse" of NASCAR driver Danica Patrick behind the wheel. Patrick later "caught her share of backlash on Twitter" (
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1/28).
HOLD THE PHONE: VARIETY's Brian Steinberg wrote GoDaddy "seems to have put one over on an easily-duped populace," as it "feels like this was something the company had planned all along." The company’s "current narrative may represent exactly what has taken place." Yet pieces "don’t fit together as neatly as they might seem." Steinberg: "How did GoDaddy pull one ad and have another one ready to go so quickly?" To have a "back-up ready to roll, GoDaddy would have had to have secured approval" from NBC sometime after the start of '15. After using Patrick in its Super Bowl commercials since '07, GoDaddy VP/PR Elizabeth Driscoll said that the company "will not be featuring her in Sunday’s commercial." Patrick had been "scheduled to be part" of the '15 campaign, and removing her "doesn’t seem like a move that is made on the spur of the moment" (VARIETY.com, 1/27).
