Super Bowl GoDaddy kiss commercial: How much did your kids squirm?
When a website hosting-service’s Super Bowl commercial asked “Who’s your GoDaddy?” via a gusty kiss between gorgeous Bar Refaeli and actor Jesse Heiman, the nation united to wail, “Not that guy!” While the socially awkward spot didn’t actually cause the Superdome blackout, it lit a fire under my sons who fled the room, taking with them a potential urban dictionary term that may become the signal of either taunt or triumph.
The kiss, or as I like to call it the world’s most visceral nerd snog, heard 'round the world, between Refaeli and Heiman, was meant to show us what happens when sexy meets smart. Apparently, people run away screaming, “AIEEEEEEEEEE! My eyes!”
In fact, according to ABC news: “Barb Rechterman, the chief marketing officer for GoDaddy, said CBS, the television network that is broadcasting the Super Bowl this year, rejected the first version of the ad....They had to scale down the kissing a bit.” I can only imagine the carbon half-life of that socially awkward bombshell. As it was, the commercial had 45 takes.
However, even “scaled down,” less than an hour after the "kisspocalips" my sons, ages 13 and 17 groaned and chuckled over what they were already joking would surely become a new cultural reference.
In the kitchen I caught snippets of conversation and one saying to the other, “OK, people are seriously going to be saying, 'That’s a GoDaddy right there…' in reference to some poor pair. I wonder how fast it will catch fire in every middle and high school this week as a comparison moniker for what people consider to be a mismatched couple?
According to ABC News, Heiman has had cameos in over 100 popular films and TV shows including, but not limited to: “Parks and Recreation,” “The Mindy Project,” “The Social Network,” “Old School,” “Austin Powers: Goldmember,” “Spider-Man,” “Catch Me If You Can” and “Bones.”
This can only do good things for Heiman’s life, and Bar Refaeli will definitely survive the "kisspocalips," but those who are not as attractive or cashing-in on their nerd-factor will be less fortunate.
As the mother of a son, 9, who while cute to look at, has Aspergers Syndrome and is set upon daily for being the socially awkward “nerd” who likes a popular girl, but is missing the social cues that she’s not interested in math, science, Minecraft games, or him. The mockery has become a daily grind. So as I sent him off to school today I hope none of the kids decides to hit him with The GoDaddy slam.
On the other hand, the Twittersphere, while roundly bashing GoDaddy in Tweets calling the spot everything from “uncomfortable” to “icky” as people spoke of “recovering from it” Heiman was hailed as the real winner of the Super Bowl.
Therefore, I’ll offer two versions for the Urban Dictionary entry for “That’s a GoDaddy”: 1. A severely mismatched couple. 2. The underdog who gets the girl. I prefer the latter. Let the verbal games begin.
