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Has Bob Parsons Bitten Off More Than He Can Chew?

Posted on April 1st, 2011 by admin in Domain News | No Comments »

To the average domainer, GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons has become synonymous with extravagance – from the extravagant Super Bowl ads, lavish staff parties, huge holiday parties – to the Godaddy NASCAR race team, the big charitable donations and the penchant for promoting Godaddy products with the aid of the fairer sex.

It’s nothing new, it’s the Godaddy way – probably not to everyone’s taste – but hey, everyone is not as successful as Mr Parsons, so he must be doing something right. Right?

However, as he continues to search for the ultimate linkbait (while resting from his quest for world domination), Bob may have inadvertently done some irreversible, serious damage to his company’s reputation with his latest linkbait.

Parsons recently posted a video on his personal blog detailing his travels to Zimbabwe earlier this year during which he participated in an annual hunt of what’s called “problem elephants”, animals that destroy local villagers’ crops. In the introduction to the video, Parsons wrote, “I spend a few weeks in Zimbabwe each year helping the farmers deal with problem elephants. The people there have very little, many die each year from starvation and one of the problems they have is the elephants, of which there are thousands and thousands, that trash many of their fields destroying the crops”. He goes on to say: “Of everything I do, this is the most rewarding”.

Although most of the elephants encountered by Parsons and his team were driven off, there was one notable exception. As shown in the four-minute video below, Parsons and his team – GoDaddy baseball caps in tow – track and kill a rogue elephant. Bob Parsons then poses with the dead elephant, and the video goes on to show local villagers carving up the dead elephant for meat – all to the tune of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells.”

Regardless of the real intentions behind posting the video, Bob has definitely created linkbait. Everyone is writing about it – from DomainNameWire within the industry – to the MoralLowGround, DigitalTrends, MotherNatureNetwork, FoxNews and HuffingtonPost, just to name a few.

Peta (people for the ethical treatment of animals) have launched a campaign to boycott Godaddy products – others have followed suit. Naturally, NameCheap (ever the good guys (sigh)) have come up with a deal donating $1 to savetheelephants.org for every domain transferred from Godaddy to NameCheap.

In an interview for the Phoenix New Times, Parsons defends himself by stating he was helping the local population fight problem elephants.

I stand by my decision to help African villagers. I believe elephant management is beneficial. I have the support of the people who really matter in this situation, the families of Zimbabwe — people who need help to survive. I have the support of tribal leaders and the government.

But, as Laura Goldman writes on Change.org, “while Parsons fancies himself a hero, the fact is there are many more humane, gun-free ways to keep elephants away from crops”.

As the aptly named TreeHugger explains, methods such as “Bee Hive Fences”, “Early Warning About Approaching Elephants Via Cell Phone” and “Chili Powder Up The Trunk” (to name a few) have proved good deterrents for problem elephants – methods which in turn don’t include harming the animal.

By the way, the African elephant is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. However, countries like Zimbabwe have never fully adhered to the act, opting instead for “population control” of “problem elephants”. Critics of the “problem elephant” control method prefer to call it the “rich guys pay big bucks to kill elephants” method.

Has Bob Parsons gone too far with his latest linkbait? I leave you with the video to judge for yourself.

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