Earlier this month, we reported that Go Daddy has dropped the GoDaddy girls in favor of a new “ass-kicking” small business message in its advertisements. They kicked this new strategy off during the NFL season opener with an ad featuring screen legend Jean-Claude Van Damme.

According to data from the YouGov BrandIndex, “He’s no Danica.”

“Go Daddy may have to bring sexy back,” a YouGov spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Trading in provocative auto racer Danica Patrick in a bikini for action star Jean-Claude Van Damme playing musical instruments in a bakery has not given Go Daddy’s new ad campaign a promising start with consumers.”

Since the ad spot premiered, they say, ad awareness has increased nearly 50%, and the brand’s perception has shown improvement, but in the past five days, consumer perception of the company has fallen to just below where it was before the ad launched, with equal positive and negative feedback from consumers.

“Since premiering its new TV ad spot on Thursday, September 5th, ad awareness for Go Daddy has increased nearly 50% from 13% to 18% of the U.S. population. The brand’s perception also had a modest improvement over the first week since the campaign began.”

“On September 5th, the day the Jean-Claude Van Damme campaign launched, Go Daddy had a Buzz score of one, meaning slightly more positive feedback vs. negative feedback. By September 12th, the score moved up to 4, but then dropped just below zero by September 15th.”

Here’s a new Van Damme ad they put out a few days ago:

I don’t know. That one’s pretty sexy.

Image via YouTube