February 2, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- With just four days remaining until Super Bowl XL, Web hosting provider and domain registrar Go Daddy (godaddy.com) held a press conference Wednesday to discuss its efforts to win last-minute acceptance for the 14th iteration of an ad that has been repeatedly rejected by the standards and practices division of Super Bowl broadcaster ABC.

Go Daddy set out to advertise in this year's Super Bowl after stirring up controversy with an ad it ran in last year's big game. The ad, which featured well-endowed actress Candice Michelle parodying the "wardrobe malfunction" experienced by Janet Jackson during the previous year's halftime show, was pulled from a second slot late in the game.

Since Go Daddy agreed to buy a 30-second spot for the February 5 game, ABC's standards and practices board has kept a close eye on the company's ad, rejecting 13 versions as of the company's Wednesday press conference in a process Go Daddy's founder and president Bob Parsons has chronicled thoroughly on his blog (bobparsons.com).

Parsons claims to be steadfast in his determination that the Super Bowl ad be "godaddy-esque," a characterization he describes as "fun, edgy and just a touch inappropriate." But he has had no success so far in convincing ABC of his vision.

There is little doubt that Go Daddy is courting controversy for effect with this year's ad. An announcement issued Wednesday detailing the efforts at approval and announcing the press conference touted the attention the company gained from the controversy surrounding last year's ad, highlighting "share of voice" measurements and publicity dollar figures provided by ad tracking service multivision. The announcement also pointed out kudos given to the campaign by USA Today and Business 2.0.

According to Parsons, the attention generated by last year's ad has placed his company under the microscope, making for more creative restrictions than it would otherwise have faced.

"It's not nearly as racy as the Victoria's Secret commercial, which ABC has aired many times," he says, "or the Jessica Simpson ad which ABC has already approved for the Super Bowl."

Parsons says the 14th ad, submitted on January 27, is the company's final attempt at getting an ad approved. The company has spent more than $1 million developing the 14 ads "in an effort to produce a commercial that would be acceptable to both Go Daddy and ABC TV." At Wednesday's press conference, Parsons said he was still awaiting a response on the company's 14th effort. He suggested that review for this ad included influences outside of ABC's standards and practices division.

At the press conference, Go Daddy distributed DVDs containing the material that had been rejected up to this point by ABC. Following the meeting the company made the material available for download via its Web site.

While parsons fears the ads are being rejected for being too racy, most of the ads rejected up to this point also include scenes poking fun at broadcasters' hesitance to run Go Daddy's spot. It certainly isn't an enormous stretch to imagine that the mockery may have had some influence in the ads being rejected.

Go Daddy is still waiting to hear back from ABC on the final submission, but, given the company's fairly obvious efforts to stir up controversy, it wouldn't be entirely surprising if Go Daddy had a standards-friendly submission ready for the final round.

If the new ad, too, turns out to be too racy for ABC, we can always watch it online.