Google Video has published the commercials for the 2006 Superbowl up here. Edit: Google Video is long gone, but you can find banned GoDaddy commercials on YouTube.

This is great because the commercials are sometimes better than the game, but there's also something very interesting with the Godaddy ads.

Now, Godaddy is no stranger to controversy. Their ads were pulled at the very last second from last year's superbowl, for being too raunchy - so what did they learn from that? (We'll cover this soon)

Well, on the google collection, there are FIVE adverts that Godaddy tried to use for superbowl. Watch them all, they're great.

Now, it is pretty obvious to me, that the four which were denied never had a prayer of being approved. Its obvious to me, and its definitely obvious to the people who created the ads.

So why do that? Why make ads that you know will be rejected for being too raunchy?

Here's why - and its great marketing

  • Godaddy, as an internet powerhouse, realise the power of the web. They have a fantastic distribution network here already to show their ads to everybody. All they need to do is get people interested.
  • After last year's fuss, its easy to "oops we did it again". They make 5 commercials, one of which they know will be accepted. The other four get denied, then everybody wants to see the ad, so they can see for themselves why it was rejected!

And personally, I really like the way they brand the ads. They use the beautiful Godaddy Girls to good effect. So Godaddy are being lighthearted, and doing funny things to the stereotype by creating a character like that to promote an internet company.

So what DID godaddy learn from last years rejection?

Easy - they learnt how powerful controversy can be. As soon as their ad was pulled, they started screaming publically about it. And the put the ad up on the internet, so that anybody could download it from the godaddy website.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to find out that more people saw the ad on the internet than would have if they had shown it at the superbowl! And also, think of the demographics who would make up the superbowl audience? Its most of the country, yeah? But is that your target market? Shouldn’t one be a little more select than that when identifying an audience?

Of course one should. And Godaddy did! They kind of people who would buy a domain name, or need webhosting – well they’re the people who would here Godaddy complain about the pulled ad, and who would then jump online to see the video for themselves.

Genious! And check out Bob Parson's Blog - he's the founder of GoDaddy.