Keeping Pressure on Sexist Super Bowl Advertisers

UPDATE: GoDaddy’s responds to a customer’s letter. Click to jump down the page.

We’re thrilled with the overwhelming success of last night’s #NotBuyingIt campaign! Thousands of tweets called out sexist commercials in real-time, and we reached nearly 1 million people through user activity on Twitter during the Super Bowl. Now the impact of the conversation has spread well beyond the game.

Today the #NotBuyingIt talk swept across the Internet, from Mother Jones to Feministing. On Twitter, consumers continued to express dismay at some of the most egregious offenders (like @Fiat, @Teleflora and @GoDaddy), proving that there are many women and men out there who are tired of advertisers’ lack of creativity. It’s clear that this year, Super Bowl sexism isn’t selling.

The timing is right! Let’s keep the pressure on. We’re specifically targeting GoDaddy for their history of offensive commercials and encourage you to take the following steps to join us:

1. Continue tweeting @godaddy, letting them know you’re #notbuyingit. In the past 24 hours we’ve seen a flood of tweets directed at GoDaddy and as a result, the company has responded by suggesting equally offensive “alternative” commercials. In any case, we have their attention.

2. If you haven’t already, leave their hosting service. Then ask others to do the same! Here’s how.

3. Write GoDaddy a letter. We just sent them the message below expressing our disgust. You can use it as a template or write your own!

Dear GoDaddy,

For years your company has relied on objectifying and demeaning women in Super Bowl commercials. These ads not only needlessly stereotype women, but rely on shallow and offensive portrayals of men as well. As the #notbuyingit campaign on Twitter has shown, we are far from alone in our disgust with your history of sexism.

On Facebook you currently have the lowest rated Super Bowl ad of the night, as voted by potential consumers, and many have written extensively about their distaste for your ads. Your brand of sexism is no longer selling.

People are organizing online and using their power as consumers to let you know they’ve had enough. We at MissRepresentation.org switching all of our domains from GoDaddy, but we are actively encouraging everyone we know to do the same. Many are already making the move.

That’s why we’re writing you today to urge you to reconsider your advertising strategy. We’d even like to offer our hand in helping rebrand your company. We believe GoDaddy is capable of creating effective commercials without resorting to sexism. It just takes conscious effort.

That being said, until you’re willing to value women and girls, we will continue to organize consumers to call out GoDaddy.com.

We hope to hear from you soon. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

MissRepresentation.org

The three steps above can also be used to call out any of the other offensive Super Bowl advertisers.

We have already shown, through the response to #NotBuyingIt, the power of individual voices used collectively to fight sexism. The advertisers are on notice, and we just have to keep it up. Together we’re making a difference.

UPDATE:

GoDaddy has responded to some #NotBuyingIt letters today. Susan B. sent us this:

Susan B.,

Thank you for contacting Online Support. We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts about our Super Bowl campaign. As a company we have strived, some may say unsuccessfully, to have a little fun with our advertising … but when it comes to taking care of business, we are absolutely serious about taking care of customers like you. Go Daddy respects feedback, even critical opinions. Please know we will share your correspondence with the appropriate parties internally.

Sincerely,
Raymond L.
Online Support Team

Have you received a response to your letter? Let us know and keep up the great work!