Michael Talerico

As the popular Lynyrd Skynrd song goes, I find myself a simple man. Recently I have been finding it much harder to live that way. Like most men, I enjoy football and for the most part my family does not enjoy watching the games as much as I do, but there is one game that has become a family event: The Super Bowl. It means a great time with food, yelling, and even the silly little family bets with each other for chores. Our favorite part has always been the commercials. The goofy and sometimes touching ones have been great but then there are the “GoDaddy.com” ones.

I cannot explain how it feels to have your 8 year old son ask, “Dad, what is that for?” especially when the ad has absolutely nothing to do with what the business is trying to sell. Better yet, trying to figure out what my 14-year-old daughter is thinking as she is watching these want-to-be Hooter girls dance around as if they are selling a workout video. I know what you are thinking, “Get with the times” or “Don’t be so naive.” I am not an idiot, I know what’s out there and yes my kids will find out sooner or later, but that is something my wife and I should decide not a commercial on a national broadcast.

We were not expecting to see this type of late-night commercial during the Super Bowl. I am not saying that Go Daddy.com is an evil company by any means. In fact, Go Daddy is ranked as one of three finalists in the BBB of Greater Arizona Business Ethics Awards. Their own CEO Bob Parsons refers to the marketing as "GoDaddy-esque" which is described as "fun, edgy, and a bit inappropriate.”

Could what makes them great, simply be that GoDaddy has donated millions to local and worldwide charities and their employees volunteer hundreds of hours to help the needy? Is that what makes a great business or is that the way GoDaddy relieves its guilty conscious and makes itself feel better for a lack of ethics in its marketing messages?

A simple life is not so simple anymore, not if a father trying to teach his son how to respect a woman and teach him, that she is not just an object of desire or teach your daughter that how she looks is not what makes her beautiful but rather what is on the inside. Yes, this might sound corny in this day in age but it is what my wife and I believe.

If they are that great of a company how is it that they have no issue producing purely sexual ads that have nothing to do with their business?

Photograph Credit:
Sabrina Segal