GoDaddy is a company that registers internet domain names. I recall seeing their Super Bowl ad two years ago, in which a doddering old executive had a comical reaction to an attractive woman’s “wardrobe malfunction.” I didn’t think much more of that ad; I remember it vaguely as crude but also humorous. If GoDaddy ran ads in last year’s Super Bowl, I missed them because I was serving a homeless shelter with the high school youth group for which I volunteer.
This year, their ads jumped out to a much greater extent, as they made use of women in a much more blatant and offensive way. GetReligion writes about it here, and if you really want to see the ads, I’m sure you can find them on YouTube. There’s no excuse for these ads; they’re simply using sex to sell their product.
Well, at this point I’m embarrassed to say that this site’s domain is managed by GoDaddy, as is one other that I registered for another Catholic project. A moment ago I called their customer support line to speak to sales. I wanted to tell them that because of those ads, I will not renew my domains or in any other way do business with GoDaddy again. The support rep sounded a bit startled. She told me she’s sorry to hear how I felt, and added that she’s a woman and the company treats her just fine. I explained that it’s a matter of what the company presents to the public – advertising that way is a choice they make, and unless they publicly apologize and never do it again, I’m going to take my business elsewhere. She apologized again and offered to send me a customer survey, which I will fill out to the same effect.
The sad thing is, I doubt the issue of morality or even propriety ever came up in whatever meetings produced their ads. I rather think they were excited to land an endorsement of sorts by Danica Patrick. I don’t expect that their new sales nor current customers will significantly decline out of negative reaction to the ads. But I hope that any other Christians with domains registered there will also cancel, tell GoDaddy why, and pray for mercy for our painfully lost culture.
Not a bad idea Brad. Do you know another established web host that hosts your website this cheap?
Well, my *hosting* is with http://pehosting.com/ . They’re pretty cheap and their service to me has been great; also their terms of service stipulate that there is absolutely no pornographic material permitted, so I’m comfortable that they’re more family-friendly.
It’s only my domain name registration that’s been handled by GoDaddy. But when my domains expire I’ll just register them with PEHosting as well.