You’ve probably seen the GoDaddy ad that was prepared for the Super Bowl but got pulled after folks went ballistic. If you missed it, here’s a look:
I have to admit, not without some shame, that I laughed when I first watched it. What struck me funny was the spot on parody of the touchy-feeley ads that are shoved down our throats on the Satan media known as TV.
On reflection I can understand some of the objections raised about the ad but continue to think that folks really are over sensitive about these things. In this case The Church of Perpetual Outrage seemed to be having an old-fashioned revival meeting, can I get a hallelujah?
But maybe I’m just an ornery cuss who needs to re-calibrate his sensitivity meter.
Max doesn’t much care because no Maltese were used in the commercial. But what do you think?
Categories: Max's Stories
WITHIN THE K STREETS 
What a bitch. Not the dog.
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I know…really! But it totally caught me off guard. By the end of ad I was reaching for my glucose meter, grabbing the Glucerna shake and otherwise battling incipient diabetes, the cold-hearted commercial attitude was somehow perversely refreshing.
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I second the one who is hunting zen. As my mother’s dog passed a couple months ago and they just adopted a dog named Buddy three days ago, my heart does ache for this little guy. My main problem is not that it’s cruel (because life is cruel, so deal with it) but that she was selling something that was not in her possession. How long was he gone? Why didn’t she take the listing down the second he fell out? Was she taking it for granted that he would return? She is a woman of poor decisions. But the decision to pull the ad just cow-tows to people who think dogs don’t get sold daily, some for fighting, some for worse.
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That was quite a response. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an adept blending of the analytic and hormonal. You scare me sometimes, Kerbey…in a good way.
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And I didn’t make any reference to South Koreans eating dog, which would have been in poor taste.
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You’re just waiting for me to pick up on that “poor taste” comment but I am wise to your ways and won’t take the bait.
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Which sociopath thought up this one? Does it work for Goldman Sachs?
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GoDaddy has a long track record of pushing the envelope on semi-outrageous, edgy perhaps borderline Super Bowl ads. For a number of years they used race car driver Danica Patrick in a series of mildly titillating productions and I think – I’m not 100% sure – that she is the driver of the van taking Buddy to his new home in this ad.
It’s funny how the ad strikes folks. Some laugh at first and then come to dislike it. Some loathe it at first sight but laugh the second or third time around and some folks pick a position and never change. Most of the people I have been with whilst watching the ad fall into the second category but I hang with reprobates.
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I wrote a post about how I felt about this. I didn’t laugh at all. Especially since the previous GD CEO hunted and killed an elephant. When are we going to stop treating other species like this? Humans are not very humane. And I’m not being OVERLY sensitive, I’m appropriately compassionate and caring.
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I can appreciate your feelings and appreciate your visiting this silly dog blog to express them. All points of view are welcomed. I won’t even reference the classic Groucho “I shot an elephant in my pajamas. What he was doing in my pajamas I’ll never know” joke. Whoops, too late. Actually. kidding aside, you and I are actually in agreement (and I think 100% of everybody else here is, too) that, worldwide, there are horrific acts of inhumanity perpetuated on innocent animals and we as a species are often not very good stewards of the precious life that surrounds us. We all have varying thresholds of sensitivity to the triggers that set us off. Clearly this ad hit your threshold and I respect that. Don’t be a stranger, visit often!
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Will do, love Hawaii, my hub spent part of his childhood in Kauai, he worked all over there as a tug captain, and we’ve visited several times for the big waves. Aloha!
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Now why doesn’t that surprise me…..
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No sorry…. I can’t laugh at that. At all 😞
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Buddy replies:
“You’re a soft hearted sweetie but, hey, I’m an actor dog, got paid union scale and am eating prime rib nuggets in my suburban dog house.”
:insert evil emoticon:
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I’m a total softie! I adore my fluffy daughters’
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Your doggies are mighty high on the cute meter! To me, the GoDaddy ad was just that – a blatant pitch to sell something using the tactic of surprise, an ending you didn’t see coming. The clever part is that it mirrors other ads that use sentimentality to achieve the same result; i.e., to flog the goods. I don’t tear up on the Budweiser commercials (except when I see the bottles of golden goodness) and I don’t feel outraged with GoDaddy although there is a twinge because I really want that cute Golden pup to have a great home. But to me they are both deliberately manipulating emotion to make a profit which is plain old capitalism and not an advocacy of puppy mills or horse drawn carriages.
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Get real. There’s a lot worse happening to canines out there. Pretty soon we’ll have to stop telling jokes like “3 lawyers died and went to heaven. Saint Peter ..”. We all know lawyers don’t get to heaven so it is unrealistic, but it deals with death and that’s taboo. I’m certain that all those who wanted the ad pulled volunteer all their spare time in shelters.
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But…but…but…they are puppies and they are being sold like merchandise! You are a cold and hard Kismet, and I like that in a bird.
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Of course it’s a parody of the wonderful Budweiser ‘best-buddy’ commercials – and so the surprise twist at the end is a little, teeny, bit funny. Once watched, I dismiss it completely, just like GoDaddy. (All experienced website owners stay away from them.)
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Unless the website owners are teen males in which case checking out Danica Patrick outweighs concerns about site performance and security. 🙂
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I listened to this w/o the sound at first (house is quiet at 5:30 am). But after reading the comments, I put the sound on. Holy****! Totally agree with the first comment. Onward to bigger and better things, Buddy. You don’t want to be at that house.
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Did you really shout “Holy ****” at 5:30 a.m.? How did the cats respond? They must have thought, “Holy ****, Mom found out about those special treats we left under the bed.”
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[In this case The Church of Perpetual Outrage seemed to be having an old-fashioned revival meeting, can I get a hallelujah?] Amen, brother. That said, and hearing that the CEO of GoDaddy is a big game hunter of endangered animals, I have to admit this was in questionable taste at the least, and just plain gawd awful in general. One way to deal with objectionable content of course is to not watch/buy it but some people think their rights trump everyone elses. Sometimes it takes capitalism a little while to catch up with some of the more egregious cretins, but eventually (hopefully) they end up getting their just rewards. Hope springs eternal; welcome back! 🙂
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Can’t much argue with that, Monika. Thing is, GoDaddy has gotten so much publicity on this that it’s probably already a successful campaign especially since there was no media buy and especially not at Super Bowl prices. Plus they now leverage their replacement ad which Church Members and others will likely check out. Maybe I’ll drop drop GD a line and ask for a cut of sales.
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Thanks for posting the commercial. I’ve heard a lot about it, but haven’t been able to watch it. I’m not sure why exactly, but it made me feel kind of sad, and I kind of hated the woman he ran back to.
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I think we could get a lynch mob together and go after her. I guess that means she was well-cast in the ad and did a good acting job. But she likely gets folks in the supermarket spitting in her grocery cart and make the forked fingers over by the dog food aisle.
By the way “Mister Baloney Head” is my new favorite blog title.
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