In a horrible PR faux pax, Go Daddy's CEO videos his shooting of an African elephant -- the public screaming murder, and godaddy.com customers transferring to domain registration competitor namecheap.com.
Namecheap has been thriving after graphic video footage of Parsons, firing the first shot at an African elephant, has been distributed by the media and Daily Mail UK via its "Mail Online" web site edition. At the attached link, the Daily Mail also includes Parsons seen in photos, smiling next to the slaughtered elephant.
Video footage related to the elephant shooting includes godaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons in a field of trampled sorghum -- and the insinuation that the elephant shooting he was involved in serves as a solution to crop-killing elephants in Africa. Video text tells viewers: "Properly dealing with problem elephants saves crops, feeds villages and helps maintain elephant herds...damage is extensive. Unless elephant(s) are stopped entire crops may be lost. When crops are lost subsistence farmers risk starvation."
Meanwhile, pictures of a smiling Parsons, next the bleeding and slaughtered animal killed by his own hands, serves to paint a very different picture to the viewing public.
Namecheap, a domain name registration company and direct competitor of GoDaddy, has used the elephant killing as a heyday -- pumping out PR that the company is disturbed by the video and therefore decided to "throw our support behind our elephant friends." With video footage of Parsons' shooting has been brought to light, the Name Cheap domain registration company website has been offering name transfers for $4.99, $1 of each transfer, it claims, going toward help for elephants. Namecheap.com announced a near-immediate fundraising of $20,433. The "Save the Elephants" organization in Nairobi, Kenya, says the donation was unsolicited but appreciated.
Parsons travels to Zimbabwe yearly -- he says, to hunt problem elephants, an action that the Go Daddy CEO claims is "one of the most beneficial and rewarding things I do."
Traveling with what was dubbed the "Problem Animal Control Team," video of Parsons shows includes villagers complaining about how elephants are damaging their crops.
Parsons was on permit for the elephant hunting. Legal or not, news, video and photographs of Parsons' elephant hunting has caused outrage among Go Daddy customers and non-customers alike.