Mindful Marketing
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Mindful Meter & Matrix
    • Leadership
  • Mindful Matters Blog
  • Engage Your Mind
    • Mindful Ads? Vote Your Mind!
  • Expand Your Mind
  • Contact

Are People as Important as Puppies?

1/31/2015

 
Picture
It’s time for the most anticipated ads of the year!  We’ll watch them during Super Bowl XLIX, then talk about them for days, months, and sometimes even years to come.  One ad we won’t be seeing during the game, however, is GoDaddy’s now infamous puppy commercial.

GoDaddy and puppies?  It’s not a typo.  The web firm famous for very racy ads had decided to replace scantily-clad models with cute canines.  It seemed like GoDaddy was cleaning-up its act, but that wasn’t the way everyone saw it.

The commercial’s storyline featured one particular pooch that was lost, found, then put up for purchase by the puppy’s owner.  In light of this plot, some people felt the commercial condoned puppy mills, which led to backlash against the ad, and caused GoDaddy to suspend the spot.

I can’t believe I’m saying it, but “Way to go, GoDaddy.”  The company can be commended both for trying to sell its services using something other than sex and for showing sensitivity, albeit under pressure, to individuals concerned about the puppy mill suggestion.  GoDaddy appears to be making some movement toward “Mindful Marketing.”  Of course, the ad the firm uses to replace the puppies remains to be seen.

In this case, what’s more troubling than GoDaddy’s recent actions is consumers' relative apathy about GoDaddy’s previous ads and others like them.  Individuals are distressed about the implication of cruelty to puppies, so why aren’t we equally disturbed about the actual denigration of people?

Many GoDaddy commercials, as well as those by certain other Super Bowl advertisers over the years, have featured women in extremely sexualized situations, including varying states of undress.  Such ads objectify women, i.e., strip away their personhood and relegate them to a mere set of stimulating body parts—objects of sexual gratification.  Here are some of those ad examples: GoDaddy 1, GoDaddy 2; other firms' ads.

This over-sexualization is hazardous in its own right; however, it becomes even more dangerous when recognized for reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes, promoting unrealistic body image, and encouraging sexual addiction.  These connections are relatively easy to project.  Other outcomes, such as violence against women and sex-trafficking, are more complex and indirect but not unreasonable to relate to such public over-stimulation.

Of course, we must value all life, including that of animals, but something is wrong when our collective concern for people fails short of our corporate concern for puppies.  Where is our comparable backlash against ads that endanger the well-being of our sisters, daughters, wives, and mothers, not to mention the health of our society as a whole?


Specific marketers are the ones who create such commercials and deserve ultimate accountability.  However, in this instance, by not voting against them with our dollars or making our voices more loudly heard, we as consumers bear some responsibility for “Single-Minded Marketing.”

Picture
Picture
Subscribe to Mindful Matters blog.
Learn more about the Mindful Matrix and Mindful Meter.
Check out Mindful Marketing Ads and Vote your Mind!
Nick Weaver
3/4/2015 10:02:55 am

It is great to see that people care so much about what is shown in advertizements. Yet, I agree with you that there seems to be a great need for similar unrest in terms of over-sexualized advertizements. Why is that people aren't moved enough to fight for the moral treatment of women (and sometimes men) in advertizing? Could it be that our society has become so used to seeing people depicted in such ways that we've grown tolerant to it? If so, how can we make it so that people realize the amount of harm such advertizements have?

Jessica Randhawa
3/30/2015 08:29:42 pm

Yikes, it is terrifying that the backlash of mistreatment towards puppies is much more present than the denigration of people, specifically women in this case. This is relatable to the fact that Sarah McLachlan's SPCA commercial pulls more deeply and gets more heartfelt "aww's" than a World Vision commercial. Our society seems to be desensitized to the mistreatment of humans. Women are objectified in the music we listen to and the movies we watch, and we watch them anyways. I agree that as consumers, we must stop going to these movies and speak up by voting against such commercials. Marketers are not going to continue to produce ads that create negative feedback, but until then they will put out products that do, although indirectly, contribute and promote sex-trafficking. I agree with your position fully on this issue.

Desirae Griggs
4/1/2015 06:07:19 pm

It's sad when people care more about animal treatment than how women are being sexualized and objectified. It makes me think twice about how marketing can sometimes be unethical in that it can often go against basic human morals by objectifying women. It also makes me think twice as a consumer; it encourages me to be more informed about how companies are marketing my products and making sure the way they are being marketed fits in with my own personal morals.

Daniel Martinez-Sandoval
4/2/2015 05:31:06 am

It is amazing to see that GoDaddy actually advertise their website using other forms of marketing rather than their usual "sexual" advertisements during the super bowl. Even though it is sad that people were disagreeing on the way they advertised this year. At the same time it shows that our society is holding such low values because they care more about animal treatment than how women were being sexualized and objectified. Our society needs to open their eyes and realize that human beings are worth more than animals, I am not saying that we should not care about animals but our main goal should be that everyone is been treated equally.


Comments are closed.
    Subscribe to receive this blog by email

    Editor

    David Hagenbuch,
    founder of
    Mindful Marketing    & author of Honorable Influence

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Categories

    All
    + Decency
    + Fairness
    Honesty7883a9b09e
    * Mindful
    Mindless33703c5669
    > Place
    Price5d70aa2269
    > Product
    Promotion37eb4ea826
    Respect170bbeec51
    Simple Minded
    Single Minded2c3169a786
    + Stewardship

    RSS Feed

    Share this blog:

    Subscribe to
    Mindful Matters
    blog by email


    Illuminating
    ​Marketing Ethics ​

    Encouraging
    ​Ethical Marketing  ​


    Copyright 2020
    David Hagenbuch

Proudly powered by Weebly