Go Daddy girl (and occasional race car driver) Danica Patrick will appear alongside supermodel Bar Refaeli in the upcoming Go Daddy Super Bowl ad.
Web hosting giant Go Daddy announced on Friday that supermodel Bar Refaeli will appear in one of the company’s two 30-second spots in this year’s Super Bowl on Sunday, February 3, presumably continuing the company’s tradition of racy advertising during the big game with an ad Go Daddy has reportedly titled “perfect match.”
The Bar Refaeli Go Daddy Super Bowl ad will see the Israeli model appear alongside long-time “Go Daddy girl” Danica Patrick, who, after this year’s Super Bowl, will have appeared in more Super Bowl commercials than any other celebrity, at 12.
Go Daddy reported in December that it was once again teaming up with the .co domain registry to help promote the relatively new TLD via the Go Daddy Super Bowl ad.
While it is unlikely the ad will veer too far from the company’s tried-and-true “sexy girls” approach to marketing domains and hosting, it will be interesting to look for a new tone in the ad, this being just the second Super Bowl since Go Daddy was acquired in 2011, and the first since the new Go Daddy CEO, Blake Irving, was appointed in December.
Go Daddy owes its powerful position in the domain name and web hosting industries in large part to its Super Bowl advertisements, and its success in capitalizing on the controversy its original ads created. Go Daddy ran its first Super Bowl ad in 2005, at a time when the company was much smaller (making the cost of the ad a pretty significant risk) and the hosting and domain industry much less understood by the average consumer.
Fox pulled the 2005 Go Daddy Super Bowl ad – which poked fun of the infamous Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” of the previous year’s halftime show – from its second airing during the broadcast, creating a censorship controversy that created significantly more attention for Go Daddy than the ad itself, and helped to establish the company’s image as a kind of racy, playfully tacky advertiser. Go Daddy continued to push that angle the following year, when it submitted a racy ad that was rejected by the broadcaster prior to the game. Go Daddy aired an edited version that steered viewers to its website in order to view the uncut ad, a move that many assume was a clever and calculated play for further controversy.
The Go Daddy Super Bowl ad campaign during the upcoming game will be the company’s ninth consecutive year advertising during television’s most-watched event. The company is being secretive at the moment about the content of the ad, but one would assume Go Daddy hired the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model to participate in something sexy – or possibly something hilariously unsexy, like glasses or unkempt hair.
“We think we’re going to make special Super Bowl magic with ‘Perfect Match,’” says Go Daddy chief marketing officer Barb Rechterman, quoted in the press release. “This ad marries Go Daddy’s edgy brand with our reputation for taking care of customers in a way we think will be surprising and, more importantly, entertaining.”
The ad, which was developed by Deutsch NY, is being filmed in New York City this weekend.
Deutsch is the same agency hired in the summer to produce Go Daddy ads for the Olympics in London.
Talk back: Are you interested to see another round of Go Daddy Super Bowl ads? Do you think the new management will result in a change to the company’s marketing approach? Who do you think is going to be playing in the Super Bowl? Let us know in the comments.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
