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Journey Home

“Journey Home” was a GoDaddy 2015 Super Bowl commercial that was subsequently canceled due to popular outrage on social media. The commercial featured a cute puppy that was separated from its family on its journey home. However, its ending showed the owners being happy to see the puppy because they just sold it on a website built using GoDaddy. Godaddy released their Super Bowl ad early which quickly caused an uproar and thousands took to Twitter and Facebook to let the company know they were outraged. A change.org petition to pull the ad garnered tens of thousands of signatures in a matter of a few hours.

GoDaddy responded by pulling the ad from their Super Bowl spot and provided the following remark:

"This morning we previewed GoDaddy's Super Bowl spot on a popular talk show, and shortly after a controversy started to swirl about Buddy, our puppy, being sold online. The responses were emotional and direct. Many people urged us not to run the ad…. The net result? We are pulling the ad from the Super Bowl. You'll still see us in the Big Game this year, and we hope it makes you laugh. Finally, rest assured, Buddy came to us from a reputable and loving breeder in California. He's now part of the GoDaddy family as our Chief Companion Officer and he's been adopted permanently by one of our longtime employees."

The ad was intended to make fun of Budweiser, which had been teasing a Super Bowl commercial featuring a puppy-- GoDaddy's spot used many similar metaphors. But taken out of context, the commercial looked quite outrageous. Despite the canceled ad, Journey Home provided GoDaddy with significant press coverage, which once again proves that in the field of advertising there is simply no bad PR.

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