Go Daddy Hot Chicks Are Here To Stay. Site Says Campaign More “Evolution” Than “Revolution

When Go Daddy proclaimed that it had hired ad agency Deutsch to launch a new ad campaign, called “Inside/Out” to air during NBC’s Olympics broadcast, it was widely believed that the domain registry, infamous for its hugely popular and provocative strip teasing in Super Bowl commercials was undergoing a makeover and its models in the new campaign would be more unadventurous and surely more clothed.

While announcing the new contract CMO Barb Rechterman said, “We are teaming up with Deutsch because we think the team there ‘gets us’ and can help take Go Daddy to the next level.”

The company assured that this time around the emphasis would be more on the site’s function rather than cleavage.

However, their first ad from the Deutsch stable shows that it is not very easy for the company to change its spots and that it is just not inclined to discard its old ways yet.

The ad opens with a curvaceous girl, in a skin lemony dress, low-necked and very short, posturing behind glass like an animal in a zoo enclosure. Sniffling up her posterior is an otter, whose constant sniffing shows that he’d willing forego his preference for fish for flesh of a different kind.

Although there are considerable similarities between the two, the animal in the ad is an otter and not a beaver. However, for other than animal aficionados, it is hard to distinguish between the two. A ‘beaver’ apart from being an animal is also slang for the bushy appendages of the vaginal region and Go Daddy deserves credit for exercising restraint and opting for an otter, to get the message across, rather subtly.

Half the ad is focused on “Charlene” before it pans to the fat and balding “Carl” an efficient technician, who keeps the company’s servers fit and fine and ‘your website in fine shape’. The ad ends with the camera on the damsel who now has the otter in her hand and is petting it sensually, with a tag line that says, “Hot for Technology”

A narrator says that “Charlene” entices the customers, but its Carl’s efficiency and competence that make them return every time.

The ads two main characters, apart from the otter, Charlene and Carl are a perfect match. One provides the oomph the other provides the substance. Charlene knows nothing about routers and T1 line, but she can use her considerable charms to entice infatuated youth to register their domains with Go Daddy. Carl lacks those physical charms but does know his work. Together they can help the company attract new customers or as Go Daddy likes to put it; “Charlene on the outside, Carl on the inside.”

The ad is smart acceptance and acknowledgement of the brands past work, which nobody knows how much extra business it brought, but surely attracted lot of viewership.

It is widely believed that Warren Adelman, the new chief executive at Go Daddy, initiated the decision to do away with “GoDaddy-esque” ads.

Speaking about the new commercial he said, “The commercial captures what we wanted to do really well.” “We wanted to acknowledge our past, not walk away from” it, but also begin to talk more about “products and services” and “who we are.” “I felt it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge our past and do it in a tongue-in-cheek way, but really point to the future.”

Fans at the Super Bowls were reluctant to go to the bathroom for fear of missing out on “Go Daddy” ads. The company’s ads were famous for featuring models and celebrities peeling clothing. To change overnight would be doing the fans a disservice.

Go Daddy is currently the largest ICANN accredited registrar in the world, and is four times the size of its closest competitor. Go Daddy plans to air two more spots titled “Berries” and “Bubble Bath” which will also debut during NBC’s broadcast of the Olympics.