GoDaddy Dials Down Sex Factor In New Super Bowl Ad
PHOENIX (CBSNewYork/AP) — Danica Patrick has ditched sexy strip downs for bulked up bodybuilders in her latest GoDaddy Super Bowl spot.
Patrick made her mark with GoDaddy in a series of risque ads that capitalized on her sex appeal. Her 13th Super Bowl commercial for the website domain provider is her tamest one yet. Patrick is as ripped as a Hollywood action star as she leads a pack of bronzed bodybuilders to a spray-tan business.
Don't expect to Patrick take her clothes off or kiss a girl in spots for the Feb. 2 game. Patrick was stuffed into a muscle suit made by a company that created special effects for movies like "Iron Man 3."
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GoDaddy has purchased two 30-second spots, one for each half of the championship game between Seattle and Denver.
Patrick's latest ads are a makeover for GoDaddy. Since Blake Irving took over as CEO last January, he's tried to shift GoDaddy's advertising focus toward its actual company message.
The theme for this year's spot — "It's Go Time" — is focused on how GoDaddy helps small business get found online. This time, the women in the ads are smart, successful, small-business owners.
The first commercial released Wednesday starts with bodybuilders jogging down a street before Patrick — looking more like The Rock than a stock car driver — joins them and leads the pack to a female spray tanner.
"When I first saw (the costume), I thought, 'Holy crap!' " Patrick said, according to USA Today. "But I understand this ad is about brand extension, and more about what they do now."
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.
"Sex started it, and built awareness," Baker Street Advertising executive creative director Bob Dorfman told USA Today. "Now, they have to say what they do, as well as change the message internally."
This is GoDaddy's 10th consecutive Super Bowl campaign. Patrick's 13th spot cements her record as the celebrity in the most ever Super Bowl ads.
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