I’m not much of a football fan (particularly pro football), so I didn’t watch much of the “big game.” I do recall catching an ad in the first part of the game for a company called GoDaddy.com (they provide web server space and domain names for cheap) that was kind of funny and a bit “risque.”
The ad featured an attractive model, who is wearing tight jeans and a tank-top shirt, talking to a “censorship committee” about what she can and can’t do in the upcoming GoDaddy.com ad for the Superbowl. In the course of telling and showing what she wants to do, the model has a slight “wardrobe malfunction:” the strap of her tank-top mysteriously breaks, and the model struggles to go on with her presentation while dealing with her shirt. You never actually see anything, but she does have to hold up her shirt, hide under the table, etc. You can see the “approved version” and the whole “uncensored” version of the ad here (be warned– a big download).
Kinda cute, kinda funny, and, IMO, pretty innocent. I mean, I’m not offended by a kind of sexy ad that is an obvious parody of last year’s Superbowl and the current “uptightness” about sex and TV, but I am offended by these beer ads that are some variation on the theme of “my wife/girlfriend is a bitch and isn’t that funny” that I see way too often.
Anyway, in the course of surfing around the ‘net last night, I came across this entry on “Hot Points,” the blog of Bob Parsons, who is the founder and president of GoDaddy.com. Let me quote what Parsons wrote there:
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.
Unbelievable. And then, of course, we get a halftime show from that unpredictable and oh-so-current performer, Paul McCartney.
We are living in very uptight times, aren’t we?