• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 3, 2006

Less than 24 hours after the company president indicated ABC would decline its Super Bowl ad, GoDaddy received the go-ahead. The company said Thursday its spot will indeed air in Sunday's game.

"We have accepted the GoDaddy ad after careful (standards and practices) review," an ABC representative said.

ABC's acceptance of the ad--so soon after GoDaddy President Bob Parsons said his company was "being singled out unfairly" by ABC censors--fuels the belief that GoDaddy used the ad-review process to drum up publicity. Through media appearances and a blog, Parsons chronicled the company's 13 rejections--a move perhaps intended to heighten interest in Sunday's airing.

"He's kind of taking a page from Howard Stern's book: It's me against the FCC," said Brent Bamberger, vice president of marketing at Bacon's Multivision, which monitors coverage of Super Bowl ads.

Parsons denied on multiple occasions that his company was engaged in a publicity stunt.

GoDaddy, which registers Internet domain names, caused a furor in last year's Super Bowl with its provocative ad. After it ran once, Fox pulled the plug on the second airing, making GoDaddy the focus of media attention.

In press releases Wednesday and Thursday, GoDaddy identified itself as "the advertiser censored in last year's Super Bowl commercial controversy."