GoDaddy.com's Super Bowl ad showing supermodel Bar Rafaeli lengthily and
noisily kissing a nerdy fat guy was roundly slammed as gross and sexist and
wound up finishing dead list in USA Today's "Ad Meter" survey of all the
ads from the game. But GoDaddy.com isn't doing any mea culpas, and in fact is
thrilled with the ad, with company senior executive vice president and chief
marketing officer Barb Rechterman telling Forbes it produced a huge
windfall for them. She said, "Whether you loved it or hated it, it's a memorable
spot, and that spot, by the way, helped us achieve our best sales day ever, the
Monday after the Super Bowl. We've been in business since 1997, and we've done
nine years of Super Bowl ads, so for us to have our best sales day ever, that's
saying a lot." Rechterman added, "The goal was to demonstrate our edgy heritage
and make it smart, and I think it did that." And while ads that draw accolades
and heartwarmingly coax a few tears from the eye may be nice, Rechterman laid
out what the goal of advertising actually is: "The point of the spots is to make
sure that we get our message heard and talked about, so that we can expand the
brand and expose people to what we do." By that measure, GoDaddy.com's
much-reviled ad was a rousing success.