Watch “Lola” For Yourself & Give Your Opinion Now
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – What is offensive about a retired football star transitioning into a career as a successful Internet entrepreneur? That’s the question Go Daddy is asking viewers about the one Go Daddy Super Bowl commercial that was not approved to air in this year’s big game.
“Of the five commercial concepts we submitted for approval this year, this NEVER would’ve been my pick for the one that would not be approved,” exclaimed Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “This is about a guy who starts an online business and hits the jackpot. I just don’t think ‘Lola’ is offensive, in fact we didn’t see this one coming – we were absolutely blindsided!”
The 30-second commercial is narrated by Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick and features a character named “Lola,” who launches a new career as a fashion designer with an online store.
Parsons is revealing “Lola” online to see what the public thinks. “I predict most people will say ‘Lola’ is hilarious! To critics I would say, we finally produced a Super Bowl commercial that speaks to our core business – helping people be successful online.”
You can see “Lola” and share your opinions right now at www.GoDaddy.com.
A Focus on the Family commercial has been approved to air in this year’s Super Bowl and sparked controversy because it advocates a politically motivated message. The conservative watchdog organization, Media Research Center, however, defends the Christian group’s commercial saying networks have approved “Go Daddy ads, which typically feature big-breasted women,” and are presumably more offensive than a religious-oriented message.
“Lola is not a ‘big-breasted woman’ – Lola is a big, flamboyant, effeminate, lovable man,” Parsons replied.
The domain name registrar and Web hosting provider purchased slots in the first and fourth quarters of the Super Bowl. Go Daddy’s “Movies” spot has already been selected and approved as one of this year’s Super Bowl commercials, but now Go Daddy needs to declare which other ad it intends to air. Go Daddy Productions shot five different concepts with a variety of endings.
“We’ve accepted we have to go with another option – one that’s been approved and one that is still 100 percent GoDaddy-esque,” Parsons promised, referring to a term the media coined to describe Go Daddy commercials as “fun, edgy and slightly inappropriate.”
In 2006, Go Daddy helped pioneer the practice of pushing Super Bowl viewers to the Web. Last year, Go Daddy drove more Web traffic than any other Super Bowl advertiser, according to comScore. Once again this year, Go Daddy will invite viewers to “See More Now” with unrated “Internet-Only” versions to be unveiled at www.GoDaddy.com on Super Bowl Sunday.
About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 38 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world’s largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2009, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
