Super Bowl Sunday is a time when families gather around the television to watch the best teams of the year compete for the Vince Lombardi Trophy. While football’s okay and all, most people will tune in on Sunday to watch the entertaining commercials.
Though we’re still a couple of days away from seeing the infamous Super Bowl ads, one commercial is already causing quite the controversy.
The website-building service GoDaddy aired their Super Bowl ad online, which quickly sent social media into an uproar and forced the company to pull the ad from the Super Bowl, according to USAToday.
The commercial follows a puppy trying to get back home after being separated from its owners. When the puppy finally reunites with them, the owners are excited to see the puppy because they just sold it via a website they created using GoDaddy.
While the ad’s message seems inhumane, a commercial like this doesn’t seem surprising, especially coming from GoDaddy.
In the past, the online company has been known for its risqué commercials, which include a make out session between a model and a chubby actor and another that showed a woman quitting her job on live television.
Yet many social media users were very surprised. According to USAToday, there was an online petition to pull the ad from the Super Bowl at Change.org. There was also backlash on Twitter, where even SPCA representatives spoke out against the ad.
I can see how the ad seems tasteless, especially considering it condones the sale of animals. But to me people are too offended about not only this ad, but everything posted online or shown on television. There will always be one or more groups unhappy about a video’s alleged message. In all actuality, the primary purpose of these ads is to get people to buy their product. The GoDaddy ad isn’t a political message against animals, it’s just a misunderstood ad meant to be taken lightly.