What we have here is a case of the pot calling the kettle a tramp.
(Update: GoDaddy responds below.)
Like an aging starlet turning her third nose up at Hollywood's flavor of the month, Victoria's Secret is returning to this year's Super Bowl telecast for the first time since 1999 in full battle regalia -- full being relative in as much as supermodels don't wear much when swinging pillows. And the object of Vickie's scorn is none other than the bad boy of Internet domain name registrars, GoDaddy.com, and its infamous "GoDaddy girls."
(OK, guys, must you make the cat fight noise?)
In an interview with USA Today, Victoria's Secret chief creative officer Ed Razek gets the ball rolling with an irrifutable defense of sex-sells advertising: "Somebody will make noise about it just as they do another dozen commercials. If you are in the business of lingerie and supermodels, you do an ad about lingerie and supermodels."
But things quickly start to turn ugly, at least for GoDaddy, as Vic's people explain that this year's commercial, featuring supermodel Adriana Lima tossing a football, is unlikely to stir up any Janet Jackson-like controversy.
"It has a very flirty, sexy tone but is different from our other ads," says Jill Beraud, chief marketing officer.
Razek moves in tight with the haymaker.
"This ad is classy. This isn't GoDaddy.com."
Ouch. Can we see that again in instant replay?
"This isn't GoDaddy."
(By the way, GoDaddy is having "trouble" getting its Super Bowl ad "approved" by FOX "censors." The commercials, including some mildly NSFW, here.)
Despite having interviewed GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons a number of times regarding more mundane topics, I'm at a loss to predict how he will respond to this insult from the lingerie chain. Indignation doesn't seem his style.
So I've sent an e-mail to the company's PR department. Just doing my part to stir things up.
(Update: Just got off the phone with Parsons and he's not willing to simply turn the other scantily clad cheek here.
"How are they any different than us?" he asks. "All of sudden they're classy (and we're not). I don't think so."
He's not done.
"The implied message here (from Victoria's Secret) is that suspiciously thin-looking women are classy. … I think they would be classier if their commercial instead implied that it's quite normal to occasionally have something to eat.")
Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent Buzzblog items. And, if you'd like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, here's where to sign up.
Top 10 Buzzblog posts for '07: Verizon's there, of course, along with Gates, Wikipedia and the guy who lost a girlfriend to Blackberry's blackout.
A to Z on what doesn't matter in tech anymore: As in AOL to Zune, naturally.
8 can't-miss tech predictions ... for 1998
Is gaming Google a gateway to crime?
My brush with Mr. Phone-In-His-Ear.
Gates on education: Knowledge is good.
Average Joe asks Bill Gates a priceless question.
Can the geek press handle a Microsoft sex scandal?
This year's "25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries."
Cell phone jamming on the rise.