2015 GoDaddy Super Bowl Commercial Causing Controversy

For a while, GoDaddy has been sharing hints about the company’s Super Bowl commercial and Buddy the dog’s appearance. It seemed pretty evident that the company was not going to go the “sexy” route as it had done in years past, but the concept behind this year’s Super Bowl commercial had not been shared.

GoDaddy’s 2015 Super Bowl commercial was possibly revealed on Today.com, and it looks like many people who are commenting on it via social media do not like the commercial. I wrote “possibly” because I don’t know for sure if Journey Home is Go Daddy’s Super Bowl commercial or a commercial that is part of a “Buddy” campaign. For the sake of Go Daddy, I am hopeful that this is not the commercial that will air on Super Bowl Sunday.

Of course, the company has faced backlash for its Super Bowl ad campaigns in the past, but this seems to be worse. At least with the “sexy” ads, you could reference the old adage that “sex sells.” In fact, sex did sell, and I think those SB commercials were a big factor in making GoDaddy a household name and the largest domain registrar in the world.

Here are some tweets from an assortment of people who have watched the GoDaddy Super Bowl commercial featuring Buddy the Golden Retriever:

GoDaddy set up a Twitter account for Buddy the dog (@GoDaddyBuddy), and some people are even tweeting about the advertisement using his Twitter handle.

When I watched the ad, I was surprised by the ending. I thought there would be more of a happy ending for Buddy. I understand why some people might think the ending would be funny, but ultimately, it’s hard for me to see the humor when seeing Buddy shipped out in a van driven by NASCAR driver and GoDaddy Girl, Danica Patrick.

It will be interesting to see how people react when (or if) this advertisement is shown to the larger audience on Super Bowl Sunday. On the positive side (if this can be considered positive), people are talking about the company, so maybe it isn’t as bad as it seems to me.

I reached out to a representative from GoDaddy to see if the company has any comment in response to some of the criticism, and I will be happy to share it when I hear back.

Here’s the video of what is being reported by Today.com and Ad Age as GoDaddy’s Superbowl commercial:

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. You don’t do that with puppies, I am sure a focus group would have advised them, makes Godaddy seem like a greedy corporation that will do almost anything for money.

    Many people have been moving over to name.com, as clients godaddy is going the way of network solutions.

    Hope they can turn this around.

  2. You notice who the driver is at the end of clip??

    Gabbysgoldens.com was regged Dec 9th, I see they really thought about the name.

    This is actually false advertising if you go to this site no company exists like this.

    Let them run the add, more damage will be done to the company. Namecheap should be all over this.

    Maybe they should of had a site called WeSellElephantMeat.com

    DonnyM

  3. overheard in the godaddy elevator

    AD Guy – do you think we need a focus group

    Ad guy 2 – no i like it

    Ad guy – are you sure?

    Ad guys 2 – its funny , i know funny and thats funny.

    ad guy – are we really running this or ploy to run better commercial

    ad guy2 lets keep em guessing

    ad guy it was easier when we just had girls disrobing

  4. Bahhhh … that’s what a sheep sounds like, it’s a piece of fiction and all you folk on your horse get down, your hurting the horse’s back, what a joke. Please look down, …..you have dropped your sense of humor

  5. Really people, you have serious issues. I liked the video, but then there are no other more serious problems in the world for you to complain about.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

1
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

19
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...