GoDaddy CEO Links to More Footage From Controversial Elephant Killing

Every time we think GoDaddy has tried to put to rest the controversy over CEO Bob Parsons killing an elephant, Parsons brings it back up. This time he has tweeted a link to a a cover story for NRA dig...
GoDaddy CEO Links to More Footage From Controversial Elephant Killing
Written by Chris Crum

Every time we think GoDaddy has tried to put to rest the controversy over CEO Bob Parsons killing an elephant, Parsons brings it back up. This time he has tweeted a link to a a cover story for NRA digital magazine America’s 1st Freedom, which reports in line with Parsons’ own defense for his actions.

Do you think Parsons was right or wrong to kill the elephant? Comment here.

Clearly there are people standing up for both sides of the argument. PETA has been the most vocal opponent, and much of the piece is for all intents and purposes attacking that organization. It’s not just animal rights activists that were outraged by the elephant killing, however. Many people claimed they were pulling their sites from GoDaddy domains, and some of GoDaddy’s competitors took advantage of this by offering special deals (with donations to elephant-related causes) for switching to their respective services.

Parsons has staunchly defended his actions from the beginning, in the press, on Twitter, and even in unrelated GoDaddy press releases (which were about donations to Hope for Haiti), though interestingly enough, GoDaddy never put out much in the way of damage control following the outcry over the video – no press releases directly about the incident, though the video was later heavily edited to give it a completely different tone. More on Parsons’ defense here, and in the NRA article.

The video has even drawn parody on YouTube:

Regardless of where you stand on Parsons’ elephant-killing ways, it seems clear that the whole thing has done little to help GoDaddy in terms of PR, which is why I find it fascinating that Parsons keeps bringing it back up, rather than letting the story disappear into the past. It seemed like they were finally focusing their PR on charitable donations, but Parsons recently tweeted the following, bringing the elephant back into spotlight:

Nice to see someone telling it like it is. I’m on front cover of NRA magazine. Love the NRA! http://x.co/XSHo 5 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

WARNING: GRAPHIC ELEPHANT BUTCHER IMAGES BELOW

It gets more interesting, when you look at the actual article and find a different video with more footage from the elephant outing. There’s no AC/DC soundtrack in this one like there was in the other one before it was edited, though I have to wonder if this one has been edited as well. Before editing, the other one also showed many villagers wearing GoDaddy hats. This seems to be lacking in this video as well. It’s not embeddable (if you have a link to embeddable version, let us know, but you can see the video in its entirety in the article here), but here are a few screenshots. Please note that all captions are from the actual video. We did not add these.

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Elephant Butcher

Since tweeting the link to the story, Parsons also tweeted a link to a new GoDaddy video where he talks about how to make good decisions.

Is Parsons helping or hurting GoDaddy’s image by continuing to bring up the elephant? Tell us what you think.

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