HTML clipboardIt’s Super Bowl time, and that means it’s time for another raunchy installment from domain registar and web hosting company GoDaddy. GoDaddy’s inappropriate and sexually implicit commercials during the Super Bowl are really cringe-worthy, especially if you’re sitting next to your parents. Of course, sex sells, but what exactly is sexy about web hosting? Must lust control every decision we make?
Well, the statistics are in, and evidently we are ruled by lust. After last February’s Super Bowl commercial, GoDaddy welcomed 1.5 million visitors to its site, a 616% increase in one day. Largely due to its aggressive advertising, GoDaddy is now one of the top names in domain registration, and a rising star in web hosting. The unsavory methods in which GoDaddy gains business leads me to question their possible hypocrisy.
After being censored during the Super Bowl of 2005, Bob Parson unleashed a pointed response to detractors and praisers alike, where he called out Fox Networks for being hypocritical. Fox Networks, relenting under pressure from the NFL, decided against showing the second GoDaddy advertisement during the Super Bowl. Every year since then, GoDaddy has experienced a love-hate relationship with network censors, this time NBC. Due to censorship, GoDaddy has heavily edited two commercials for Super Bowl Sunday, promising to have available the uncut version on its website on February 1. Bravo! You can’t beat these guys in lead-in advertising. However, the point is that GoDaddy seems to enjoy provoking the censors, and yet it can’t seem to tolerate freedom of speech.
One of the most popular opposition voices against GoDaddy is NoDaddy.com (really catchy). NoDaddy was started by super hacker Gordon Lyon, also known as Fyodor Vaskovich. Once a loyal GoDaddy customer, Lyon’s site SecLists.org was shut down without notice. GoDaddy was the domain registrar, and took it upon itself to suspend service based on a complaint by MySpace. GoDaddy censored Lyon’s site, and his is not the only. NoDaddy is filled with unhappy customers with similar stories to tell.
With all big name hosting companies, there will be a fringe with something to complain about, but are these complaints valid? I’d say so. This type of censorship is incongruent with GoDaddy’s blatant disregard for appropriate content when it comes to its own self-promotion. One can only hope that the inevitable flock of people arriving at GoDaddy’s site on Sunday evening for an uncensored view will not be censored in the process.
