Don’t expect to see Danica Patrick take her clothes off, kiss a girl or do anything else risque during the next Super Bowl.
GoDaddy will again feature its famed spokeswoman in its infamous Super Bowl ads, but the website domain provider said Thursday it is canning the risque innuendo. GoDaddy’s advertising campaign has leaned toward sexually suggestive themes since its early days when WWE diva Candice Michelle was the company spokeswoman.
But since Blake Irving took over as CEO in January, he’s tried to shift GoDaddy’s advertising focus toward its actual company message.
“2014 marks a new era for GoDaddy Super Bowl commercials,” Irving said in a statement Thursday.
GoDaddy has purchased two 30-second spots, one for each half of the Feb. 2 game, and the company said Thursday “at least one of the two spots will feature” Patrick. The NASCAR driver has appeared in 12 Super Bowl commercials — more than any other celebrity.
“I love what’s going on at GoDaddy,” said Patrick, spokesperson for the company for nearly seven years. “Since our last Super Bowl, I’ve been to the new Silicon Valley office and talked with customers who are genuinely grateful for how GoDaddy helps them grow their businesses online. GoDaddy is for the go getter, the ‘little guy’ looking to compete with the ‘big guys’ and I love that.”
GoDaddy teased last year that it might be dropping Patrick from its campaign, only to use her in both Super Bowl spots. Her most prolific appearance came in a commercial starring supermodel Bar Refaeli, who made out on screen with a nerd. The ad ranked last in USA Today’s annual Super Bowl ad meter.
Patrick made a cameo as a pilot in the second spot, which didn’t score much higher in USA Today’s poll.
Patrick’s first Super Bowl spot was in 2007, but GoDaddy first began using the Super Bowl to advertise in 2005 when it spoofed Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” in its commercial. Although consumers often had no idea what GoDaddy was or offered, and the ads generally tanked in polls, they always had television viewers talking during the biggest advertising night of the year.
GoDaddy chief marketing officer Barb Rechterman said the 2005 Super Bowl debut got the company a lot of attention, but GoDaddy has changed as it hits its 10-year advertising anniversary with the game.
“We’ve matured. We’ve evolved,” Rechterman said. “Our new brand of Super Bowl commercials will make it crystal clear what we do and who we stand for. We may be changing our approach, but as we’ve always said, we don’t care what the critics think. We are all about our customers.”
The Super Bowl spots will be produced by Deutsch New York, the same agency that helped GoDaddy relaunch its brand last September with the “It’s Go Time” campaign featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More