For those of you interested in the banning of the commercial’s second airing by the NFL during the forth quarter…
http://www.bobparsons.com/WastheBann...dindecent.html
Thursday, February 10. 2005
Was the Banned Go Daddy Super Bowl ad indecent?
News Flash
As I understand it, I will be appearing in the "No Spin Zone" on The O'Reilly Factor, tomorrow Feb 11, on Fox TV. I'm looking forward to it. Now, back to the Blog....
Here’s what happened.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, by now you should be well aware that following events took place during Super Bowl Sunday:
1. GoDaddy.com purchased two advertising spots during the Super Bowl. One was during the fourth break in the first quarter of the game. The other was during the final two minute warning.
2. The ad, that Go Daddy submitted to Fox that was to show in both spots, was approved in writing by Fox well in advance of the Super Bowl.
3. Sometime after the first ad was aired, NFL chief operating officer Roger Godell expressed "disappointment" to Fox, that our commercial was inappropriate.
4. When the final two minute warning rolled around, and we were expecting to see the second showing of our commercial, to our great disappointment, Fox chose to air a commercial for The Simpsons in place of our commercial.
5. We did not learn that Fox decided not to air our commercial until we were able to track down the President of Fox Sports Sales, Jim Barnett, who was at the Super Bowl. It was at this time that we were first informed of Mr. Barnett’s meeting with Mr.Godell and Fox’s decision to bend to the NFL’s request.
6. Given the normal programming we ordinarily see on The Fox Networks (i.e. FOX, FX), we found Fox’s decision to pull our ad from running during the second spot, to be a very hypocritical and “un-Fox-like” move.
7. Both commercial spots were paid for by Go Daddy in advance, acknowledged and approved in writing by Fox. We are presently in touch with Fox in an attempt to reach an amicable financial solution to the situation they have created. We would like to avoid resorting to working through the court system, but won’t hesitate to do so if we feel it is necessary.
Many people stood up and cheered.
Since the commercial aired (and the ensuing controversy took place) we have heard from many people who saw our “banned” commercial either on the Super Bowl or on the Go Daddy web site. Far and away, most people liked the commercial. I even had reports that after the commercial aired during the first quarter; some people actually stood up and cheered.
How to see the banned commercial.
If you haven’t seen the commercial (or the special 2 minute edition of the full hearing) you can see it by clicking on the following link (or copying and pasting it into your browser):
http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/superbowl05/landing.asp.
Not everyone liked the commercial.
Not everyone liked the commercial and I’ve received a number of posts and emails claiming that it was indecent, immoral, degrading to women and inappropriate for children to see. As I disagree with all of these comments, I thought it about time that I address this criticism head on right here.
Take a close look at the commercial.
If you watch our commercial closely you will notice that what you see is no worse than what you might see while walking down the street on most summer days. For example:
1. Candice (the actress who performs in the commercial) is completely clothed. It’s true that she’s wearing a tank top. No part of Candice’s breasts are showing and it’s difficult to see any cleavage.
2. There were no close-ups of Candice that bared anything.
3. Candice made no suggestive moves during the commercial.
4. Candice said nothing during the commercial that was suggestive.
5. Anyone who takes a trip to the mall will see far more skin bared than what is seen in our commercial.
6. When one of Candice's spaghetti straps pop at the beginning the commercial, she catches it instantly and *nothing* is bared as a result.
7. Close-ups of the Philadelphia cheerleaders, right at the end of the 1st quarter, bared far more and were far more suggestive than anything that took place in our commercial.
8. There is nothing in our commercial inappropriate for a child to see.
What we are guilty of?
Here’s what we’re guilty of:
1. We selected a very attractive, well-endowed, 26 year old woman for our commercial.
2. We indirectly (by having her right spaghetti strap snap at the beginning of the commercial) referred to the Janet Jackson episode.
3. Our commercial was a parody of the censorship we are seeing today, and that’s something that certain people do not want in the public light.
Our commercial will be mentioned and shown for years to come.
Overall, I am comfortable that we did nothing wrong. In fact, I believe that our commercial will be mentioned and shown for many years to come.
There’s one more issue I want to address head on.
As many people know, the first company I started and sold to Intuit was called Parsons Technology. We had a number of product divisions at Parsons Technology. Our product divisions follow:
1. Financial (this included accounting, money management, and tax preparation products).
2. Legal (document preparation for home and small business).
3. Personal productivity (greeting card makers, address books, etc.)
4. Utilities (virus detection and removal, etc.)
5. Church Software (Bible lookup software, Map software, Sermon preparation, Congregational accounting).
It's true. I used to sell Bible software.
I’ve received criticism because I used to sell Bible software.
Since the Super Bowl ad was aired and banned, I’ve heard from many people who have said things like:
1. What happened to you? How could you have changed so much since back then?
2. How is it a man who made millions from selling Bible software made a commercial that was banned by Fox from being shown a second time?
My response to this criticism.
It’s true; our church software division was profitable. However, I made most of my money on the financial, legal and other products.
To this day I consider myself a Christian, but I am not a fundamentalist Christian. I am also not a member of the religious right. I am not opposed in anyway to these groups. I am just not part of them. My beliefs today are exactly what they were back when I owned Parsons Technology. I'm still the same guy.
The Bible software was the brainchild of Craig Rairdin.
Our church software division was the brainchild of a man named Craig Rairdin. Craig, on his own, wrote the first QuickVerse program, and did it before joining Parsons Technology. When Craig showed me the program that he had written, I knew instantly that it was well done and would be a hit. Within a few weeks, Craig was our Director of Church Software, and QuickVerse was a Parsons Technology product.
Being a hard worker, Craig soon began hiring additional staff and developing additional Christian products. While Parsons Technology marketed QuickVerse, Craig owned the rights to the product, and after I sold Parsons Technology to Intuit, Craig later sold the rights to QuickVerse to another company.
Today Craig Rairdin owns his own company. He specializes in Bible lookup and Christian software for hand held computers. His company is called Laridian Electronic Publishing and can be found at
http://www.Laridian.com
There is no inconsistency.
I find nothing inconsistent with Go Daddy’s Super Bowl ad, and the fact that I used to be involved with selling Bible software and am a moderate Christian. I’ve also discussed the issue with Craig and he agrees.
Finally, why all comments do not get posted.
I appreciate everyone who takes the time to comment on the articles I post on this blog. Please understand that unless your comments get read and reviewed by me, they don’t get posted. Some days I literally receive hundreds of comments and simply can’t get to them all. I read as many as I can, and then delete the rest (both positive and negative). This might not be the best solution but at least it lets me start fresh during the next day.
No comment gets posted that doesn’t comply with the rules that I have set forth for this blog. You can find those rules in an earlier article. One sure way not to get your comment posted, is to start it with the following sentence “Bob, I know you won’t post this comment.” Because I have so many comments to look through, when I see this sentence, I agree with the writer and immediately press the delete key..
Posted by bob parsons in Go Daddy happenings| Comments (28)
Sunday, February 6. 2005
What happened to Go Daddy's second Super Bowl ad spot?
As you may have noticed our Super Bowl ad only appeared during the scheduled first quarter spot. It was scheduled to run also in the second ad position during the final two minute warning. Our ad never ran a second time. Instead, in its place, we saw an advertisement promoting, of all things, "The Simpsons."
The NFL persuaded FOX to pull our ad.
We immediately contacted Fox to find out what happened. Here's what we were told: After our first ad was aired, the NFL became upset and they, together with Fox, decided to pull the ad from running a second time. Because we purchased two spots, we were also entitled to a "Brought to you by GoDaddy.com" 5 second marquis spot. They also chose to pull the marquis spot.
Our ad is doing well in opinion polls.
So far in the opinion polls, our ad seems to be doing well. In fact, in checking the poll results on the Fox site, it is tied for first position, and on the AOL site, it is in number five position. Not bad for an ad that could only be aired once. Tivo reported that it was the third most replayed commercial. On the USA Ad meter contest it finished 28th, which put it exactly in the middle of the pack.
Stay tuned for more news as it develops.
I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this over the next few days. I believe that it's the first time ever a decision was made to pull an ad after it had already been run once during the same broadcast.
Here's the link to see our Super Bowl ad, and the 2 minute complete censorship hearing.
If you haven't seen our Super Bowl ad, or want to see it again, here's a link that will take you to it. Just click on the link, or copy and paste it into your browser.
http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/superbowl05/landing.asp.
Finally, who is The Go Daddy Girl?
The part of The Go Daddy Girl is played by a professional actress by the name of Candice Michelle.
Today Candice appeared on Good Day Live in Los Angeles. During the show, one of the hosts mentioned that our site crashed, when she went to download the 2 minute video of the full censorship hearing. I want you to know that this simply isn't true. Our site has not crashed or had any service problems throughout the entire post Super Bowl time period, in spite of unprecedented traffic. This certainly warrants a big tip of the hat to our network and website teams and our systems programming staff.
Tomorrow Candice is scheduled to appear on The Howard Stern show at 8:30 am est. I will also be on the show via telephone.
While I don't have the exact times at this moment, I understand that you will be able to see Candice this week on ESPN Zone and Inside Edition. I'll post more information on this as it becomes available.
Posted by bob parsons in Go Daddy happenings| Comments (247)
Sunday, February 6. 2005
Pre-Super Bowl Coverage. How to see our Super Bowl Ad and bonus coverage.
Pre-Super Bowl coverage of our ad has been great.
The media attention that we have received up to the Super Bowl has been far and away more than any of us at Go Daddy would have dared to dream. Our Super Bowl ad has been mentioned and discussed on television, radio and print.
For the very first time ever, I appeared on several national television shows, plus our ad was played again and again nationally --- all at no charge to Go Daddy.
Our ad was shown in its entirety nationally on CNBC, CNN, CBS, NBC and Fox. It was also shown on The Today Show. Matt Lauer said he liked it very much, and after the break, we got to hear Al Roker sing, “Go Daddy, Go Daddy, Go!” In addition to national coverage, it was shown and/or discussed on hundreds of local television and radio channels.
Our ad was picked to win the USA Today “ad meter” contest.
Donny Deutsch, host of CNBC’s show, “The Big Idea,” even said publicly that he picks our ad to win the USA Today “ad meter” contest. That would indeed be incredible, if his prediction holds true. Keep in mind that the early odds on our ad winning the “Ad Bowl” were 25 to 1. We are indeed a long shot.
Yet regardless of how our ad finishes in the USA Today’s “ad meter” contest, it has so far been a “hands down” winner. Because of the media attention our ad has received, millions of people across the country who didn’t know we existed, are now aware of GoDaddy.com. And this is before our ad has aired on the two spots we purchased on the Super Bowl.
Our ad, and the extended hearing coverage video, are now available for you to see.
We now have two videos for your enjoyment. You can either watch them on the Super Bowl ad web page, or download them in the format of your choice. When you click the link (at the bottom of this article), it will deliver a page that contains:
1. Our “approved” Super Bowl ad. Thirty seconds in length.
2. A special “web only” video that shows “extended coverage” of the entire censorship hearing. This is about 2 minutes in length.
The videos are only accessible through the link provided here.
The only way to access these videos is through the link provided in this Blog entry. It’s not possible to access the videos directly by clicking anything on our website.
Please complete our four-question survey.
We’ve also provided a small (really small) survey, and would appreciate if you would complete it after you watch the videos. It’s just a few questions. If you don’t feel like answering any or all of questions, it’s just fine. But by answering them, you’ll help us understand a little more about those who are visiting the Super Bowl ad page, and in addition, let us know what you think. Please know we are saving the information you enter in total, and do not retain anything on an individual basis.
Feel free to include a link to our Super Bowl ad page on your website.
If any of you want to link your website to our video page, you have our permission to do so. You’ll find a link there that you can copy and paste directly into your html code.
I suggest you consider using the “Share with a Friend” feature.
You might consider using the “Share with a Friend” feature to give your friends easy access to the video page. Please know that we do not capture or store any of the email addresses you enter; this mechanism is strictly for your convenience. You might also consider sending it to yourself, as it will provide you with a handy and quick link back to the Super Bowl ad page.
Our Super Bowl ad page is not for everybody.
I’ve shown both the ad, and the “full censorship hearing” video, to many people. I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t enjoy it. This includes people of all ages and both genders. Associates of mine have also shown the ad and video to many people; again, I have yet to hear that anyone thought they were offensive. So chances are, you’re going to like what you see there.
Easy ways to determine if you would not like our Super Bowl ad page.
There are some exceptions, however. I’ve heard from these folks, through comments they posted on this Blog. When I decided to use the Go Daddy Girl in our advertising, I was well aware that some people would not care for the idea. That’s to be expected with anything.
If the very thought of the Go Daddy Girl bothers you, or if you dislike seeing NFL cheerleaders and their dance moves, then our Super Bowl ad page may not be for you. This would also be the case if you don’t appreciate slapstick humor.
Here's a little secret.
I do not appear in the commercial. The name "Bob Parsons" does appear in front of the older gentleman who is a member of the censorship committee. He's a professional actor named Booth Coleman.
Finally, here is the link to access our Super Bowl video page.
To see the videos, just click the following link, or copy and paste it into your browser:
http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/superbowl05/landing.asp.
Enjoy! And please remember to complete our little survey.
Posted by bob parsons in Go Daddy happenings| Comments (86)
For those of you interested in the model that appeared in the GoDaddy commercial…
