terrylee

Did the advertisement above shock you?  And if so, what effects did it have?  Was it effective in gaining and holding your attention?  The long open mouthed kiss certainly does trigger an awkward cringe factor, and it must have been successful in gaining and holding people’s attention because it was one of the most talked about ads after the super bowl, where the competition between advertisers  to stand out is fierce.  But did it achieve its purpose of increasing sales?  I think it did.  Along with the shock factor, the advertisement made it clear what services it offered – providing internet websites and domain names for small businesses.  Yes, it sparked a controversy about when advertisements take it too far simply to grab attention, but if I’m a small business owner trying to develop a website for my own needs, I’m not really going to care about the controversy; I just need a domain name.  And from this advertisement, now I know that godaddy.com provides that service, whereas I don’t know of any other competitors.  In this case, the advertisement was effective because it allowed godaddy.com to move to the known, from the unknown, in an industry where most of its competitors are in the unknown.  But had this advertisement been for an already established company in a mature industry, such as Coke or Pepsi, it would not have been as effective.  This is because for these companies, the goal is not to be in the known (most consumers already do), but to convince consumers that its product is better than its competitors.  And the fact that advertisements such as these often arouse negative feelings and responses (as shown in the youtube rating and comments) works against the company and could deter customers away from its product.  Overall, the shock effect in advertisements should be treated as a double edged sword, that could spur attention, but also spur negativity.