GoDaddy has decided to pull their Super Bowl ad after animal rights activists were upset that their ad was promoting illegal puppy mills.

GoDaddy Super Bowl Ad Promoting Animal Cruelty?

GoDaddy released a teaser of their Big Game ad on Tuesday, and viewers quickly sprang into action petitioning to have the ad pulled from the Super Bowl.

The ad features a puppy, supposedly the one GoDaddy has adopted as their new ‘Chief Companion Officer,’ who travels far and wide to find his way home, only to be sold by his owners over the Internet. The ad was intended to mock Budweiser’s “Lost Dog” Super Bowl ad, a follow up to their beloved 2014 Super Bowl ad “Puppy Love.”

Twitter Reacts To #GoDaddyPuppy

Reactions to the ad were mixed, to say the least, with angry fans taking to Twitter using the hashtag ‘#GoDaddyPuppy.’

GoDaddy Pulls Super Bowl Ad

Barely 24 hours after the teaser premiered, GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving released a statement apologizing for the ad and announcing that it had been pulled. “At the end of the day, our purpose at GoDaddy is to help small businesses around the world build a successful online presence. We hoped our ad would increase awareness of that cause. However, we underestimated the emotional response. And we heard that loud and clear,” reads the statement.

GoDaddy will still run an ad during the Super Bowl, but it’s unclear what it will look like. Furthermore, Irving emphasized that the puppy that starred in the ad, named Buddy, came from “a reputable and loving breeder” and that he has been adopted by a GoDaddy employee.

In addition to pulling the ad, GoDaddy has plans to release a PSA featuring their star spokesperson, Danica Patrick, holding Buddy, that appears to have been filmed at the same time as the ad.

That’s a wrap with sweet little Buddy for the @godaddy Super Bowl spot! He’s a keeper!

A photo posted by Danica Patrick (@danicapatrick) on Dec 12, 2014 at 4:33pm PST

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.