Wired has a half-decent write-up on some of the more recent fiascos at Godaddy, something I've had a significant amount of personal experience with. Christians seem to be abandoning the service in leaps and bounds due to this years' racey superbowl ads that the company produced. This isn't the first time the ads have struck a nerve with the religion community -- I know of a significant amount of web hosting clients who have been migrating away from the service for precisely the same reason.
The article goes on to state that entrepreneur Brian Harrell, who manages hosting services for dozens of Christian churches and faith-based organizations and uses GoDaddy to host over 160 domains, says he's pulled several of his clients off of GoDaddy's servers after receiving numerous complaints about the company's racy ads that aired during Sunday's game. Although he's just one particular client with a significant amount of domains, he's not alone.
During Sunday's Super Bowl telecast, the domain registrar and hosting company ran two sexually suggestive ads featuring auto racer Danica Patrick -- one featuring Patrick and a few busty models tossing around double-entendres about their breast size, and another featuring Patrick stripping down and stepping into a shower.
Godaddy's response to the issue was:
Although we wish your opinion of our commercials was a favorable one, please know your feedback is highly valued. At GoDaddy.com, we strongly believe that the freedom to express one's opinions is one of the defining factors that makes the United States a great nation.I love my free speech and freedom too, but with freedom comes great responsibility.
What are your thoughts?
Wed, 29 July 2009, 22:17
Good riddance, Bible-thumpers! Religion and mega-churches have WAY overstepped their boundaries in America. Take some of the billions you bilk out of the Faithful each year and your can open 100 datacenters.
Tue, 23 June 2009, 23:16
So I won't have to share bandwidth or resources with all of those awful church sites? Fantastic!
Mon, 25 May 2009, 21:13
I actually know Brian Harrell and have read several emails and forum posts composed by him. He is a loves to rant, make ridiculous accusations, threaten with lawsuits, and generally try to bully everyone.
This guy is far less of a "Christian" than almost anyone I know.
Wed, 11 March 2009, 21:49
I'm impressed with your attitude and the way you expressed this.
We have seen non stop moral decay for the past 35 years, and we wonder why? Perhaps it's because a racy commercial is more important to some than eternity.
Mon, 16 February 2009, 20:57
I will never use them for myself or my clients. They are free to act as tastelessly as they wish, but we are also free not to use them. It is much more important to vote with your cash by going elsewhere than it is to bother with complaining to them.