Monday, February 8, 2016

Go Daddy Skips Super Bowl

After twelve years of consecutive of Super Bowl ads, Scottsdale, Arizona-based GoDaddy was noticeably absent in the lineup of advertisers during the big game on Sunday. Go Daddy has been trying mightily to change its brand image for several years, trying to shake up a reputation which was first established by the company through a series of controversial ads it showed during the Super Bowl, as a startup. The company--which has been under new management since it was acquired by a number of private equity companies in 2011 and went through an IPO last year--also recently dropped its NASCAR sponsorship, for similar reasons. The company--despite a new executive team, the addition of a number of women to its board and management team, a push into small businesses, and new messaging and branding--has been struggling to distance itself from an early reputation for sexist and misogynist advertising in those early ads. The company suffered a major branding setback last year from a misfired Super Bowl ad.