Less sex, more info coming to Go Daddy ads

Go Daddy's switch to an outside advertising agency for its upcoming Olympic Games commercials is fueling expectations that the company's off-color advertising could change.

The web hosting company and domain name registrar has been synonymous with sexual innuendo and humor in Super Bowl advertising developed in-house. Go Daddy, with local operations in Hiawatha, announced this week that it will debut a different kind of campaign titled "Inside / Out" created by the New York office of Deutsch, Inc., turning outside for help.

Company officials said that while past campaigns have established strong brand recognition, they didn't do as well at educating customers about benefits of doing business with Go Daddy.

"What we want to do now is market in ways that tell people more about what we do to help businesses grow online," CEO Warren Adelman said in a statement.

The shift follows Go Daddy's sale of a an undisclosed equity stake in the company to three major investment firms -- KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures, early this year.