Request Media Kit

GoDaddy CEO Calls Critic a Bully in Twitter Name Calling Session

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons is still on the defensive about his controversial elephant killing, which made some big publicity waves for the company a couple months ago. The issue seemed to have died down ...
GoDaddy CEO Calls Critic a Bully in Twitter Name Calling Session
Written by Chris Crum
  • GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons is still on the defensive about his controversial elephant killing, which made some big publicity waves for the company a couple months ago. The issue seemed to have died down for the most part, as far as the public eye was concerned, but it was brought back up when GoDaddy itself mentioned it again in a press release this week.

    The press release was actually about Parsons’ trip to Haiti and the company’s donations to the Hope for Haiti charity. Parsons had tweeted about the donations a couple weeks prior to the press release, and some critics accused him of basically just trying to save face over the elephant ordeal, despite the fact that the company actually has a history of such donations (extending well before the elephant incident).

    For context, if you have not been following this story, Parsons recently posted a video on the web, showing that he killed an elephant in Zimbabwe that he says had been causing problems for villagers. Despite a massive amount of backlash, he has staunchly defended his actions the entire time (more on his defense here). It probably didn’t help that the video was later heavily edited to completely change its tone. Missing from the edited version were pictures of Parsons posing proudly with the animal’s carcass, an AC/DC song playing in the background, villagers wearing GoDaddy hats while butchering the animal, and various pieces of text that said things like, “Bob Parsons fires first,” “Bob Parsons fires again,” and “Of everything I do this is the most rewarding.”

    While it’s unlikely that the criticism of Parsons actually took much of a break (we know it didn’t, because comments have continued to roll in on our past coverage of the story), it is interesting that GoDaddy and Parsons himself have brought it back into the spotlight.

    In addition to the press release, Parsons has been interacting with people publicly on Twitter. Here’s a recent conversation between a critic and Parsons that went down:

    @DrBobParsons doctor my ass. doctors help save lives, not end them, human or animal.. you pig.. i hope you rot in hell. you disgust me 2 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @jordansweetn And you dear Jordan. What have you ever done to help anyone? Cyber haters are cheap bullies and help no one. 1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @DrBobParsons i didn’t kill an elephant. nough’ said 22 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    As of the time of this writing, that was the end of the conversation (at least the public conversation).

    If you’re curious about Parsons’ Dr. title, he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Baltimore in 2008, according to The Arizona Republic.

    In another recent tweet, Parsons also linked to an interview he did with CNN’s Piers Morgan, where he defended his actions.

    Get the WebProNews newsletter delivered to your inbox

    Get the free daily newsletter read by decision makers

    Subscribe
    Advertise with Us

    Ready to get started?

    Get our media kit