I don't think anyone should make fun of her or bully her. They are likely jealous. I say congratulate her and her accomplishments because that kind of exposure only helps us all.

I don't think anyone should make fun of her or bully her. They are likely jealous. I say congratulate her and her accomplishments because that kind of exposure only helps us all.

I doubt it's jealousy. All I know of this is from this thread, but aren't people talking about giving credit where credit is due? Ie. the implication that the puppets in the video are her own creations, when they may be other people's?

I agree but as someone whose worked on commercials she likely has no say in how the final product is assembled. No different than reality shows. They rearrange thing all the time to increase drama.  I say lets give her tge benefit of the doubt trudt me I bet shes frustrated too.

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Renember too the average commercial is broken into 30 15 and 5 second cuts and they usually shoot a couple hours of fottage. I bet she did tell them about the puppets but it hit the cutting room floor do to speak.

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I agree but as someone whose worked on commercials she likely has no say in how the final product is assembled. No different than reality shows. They rearrange thing all the time to increase drama.

Oh, I agree. But there's no reason why you can't both criticise the ad for suggesting that all of her work was hers when it wasn't; and agree that it wasn't her fault but the way the ad was edited. Just because stuff hit the cutting room floor doesn't mean people can't point out that they didn't get the credit that was due to them.

Anyway, like I said, I know nothing about it outside the discussion here so I can't agree/disagree with the criticism that came out about it. I just wanted to point out that if indeed people aren't getting proper credit, they'd have a valid reason to be annoyed.

My concern isn't so much whose puppet is whose, but the site itself.  For such national attention, there isn't much on the site.  She does shows locally, and had no examples.  There is nothing there to keep the interest earned from the SuperBowl commercial.  But the biggest thing is what is posted on the bottom of the website.  "Gwen is an official spokesperson for GoDaddy."  I wonder if she is getting paid for a set duration, because quitting your job to focus on a local show seems odd to me.

I had a look at her site. I liked it. Simple, clean, easy navigation. Everything laid out clearly. There's a couple of problems, such as the blog not loading, and er, the odd layout of it. Looks like it's an embed of her Tumblr account, which is a rather strange way of presenting a blog. I do find it strange that there's no description of her performances, nor any info about cost, running times, etc. Those things would bug me, but it's a pretty good looking site.

My bet is there's a strategy here to sell 'Gwen' as a personality, and then worry about the rest. Fits in with the concept of the Godaddy ad, the way the site is structured, and the content on the page. The other thing is that given the quality of the site, the Godaddy ad, the photos... I'd say she's either put some serious dough into the set up of the business or she's got some sort of financial backing. I'm currently working on a website where the puppeteer has been in business for 25 years or so and hasn't got lots of professional-looking photos - because he's too busy working to take many

PS. You've got to remember that some people might not be good at web design or have any understanding of how to keep users interested. The footer on her page suggests that she used basic web design services provided by Go Daddy. This probably means that they used a pre-created template and 'designed' it (aka modified) per her needs, and then they do updates for her; and/or (she has two links to 2 different services) she is using a pre-designed template which is a 'plug and go' sort of thing where all you do is select a colour scheme, add your content, press publish. Having said that: her site is one of the better puppetry sites I've seen.... and I have seen a lot of crap ones. - Heck, the Bookaboo site is basically a ning ring. Compare hers and contrast it with Bookaboo's performer (Marcus Clarke) website for instance: http://www.handsuppuppets.com

I agree about the site itself.  One of the reasons I switched from DreamHost to GoDaddy, because I was having trouble getting WordPress to look the way I wanted.  The templates are very simple and easy to work with.  I admit to using her site as a guide while not directly mirroring it.  That being said, it is a great site for a local puppet company.  Just doesn't make sense for the national traffic that would be hitting it after a Superbowl commercial.  Mostly for the reasons you stated.

Interesting, I wouldn't think choice of host would affect much about Wordpress templates. But then I don't work with Wordpress; tried it intermittently but wasn't happy with the lack of ability to create separate templates per 'page'.

I think her site makes perfect sense in the realm of: a) if you don't know what you're doing a template builder and/or someone else designing it (and as I said, it's most likely a pre-designed thing even if she does have the designed-for-you option) then you're not going to be worried about having X content. I've designed sites for 2 puppeteers and they both know what they're doing business-wise but haven't got a clue about what content is important on a website, or how to lay it out. A lot of 'basic' stuff I've had to explain to them.
b) If you're marketing your personality, as in the ad, people are going to your website to find out more about you because they're excited about *you* and the puppets are almost an afterthought.
c) People know how much a Superbowl ad costs. Even though it's by Godaddy, they will simply assume "she quit her job, she got time during the Superbowl, she must know what she's doing". The mere ad itself implies she has a quality business which - without meaning to - might 'trick' people into ignoring what they normally do, which is make more of an effort to look into what she offers.
d) Remember, she's not necessarily looking for paying work either, this is purely an attempt to get eyes to the site. By far the people who will want to actually book her services will make an enquiry. And maybe that's the point. In web design terms you're always trying to get the user to make a 'next' action - view the site, next send an email enquiry and/or next book a show and/or next make a phone call, etc etc. So maybe their strategy is specifically designed to push really interested people into making that 'next' action. (I personally think if that's a strategy it's a bad one. People tend not to do anything at all if the info isn't there in the first place)
e) A website is a small part of any marketing plan.
f) And this is the most important bit.... It wasn't an ad *for her*. It was an ad for *Godaddy*. This means her site will look good, but it doesn't mean it is actually meant to do anything other than show off Godaddy and promote her as the face of Godaddy. More likely it's meant to show off GD's own web products and services.

The issue for her will be long tail - after the ad is long forgotten people going to her site will want more info. But then websites should change to accommodate new needs, like any other marketing plan.

  Interesting, I wouldn't think choice of host would affect much about Wordpress templates. But then I don't work with Wordpress; tried it intermittently but wasn't happy with the lack of ability to create separate templates per 'page'.

It doesn't.  DreamHost is a great hosting service, but it is just that, a hosting service.  Only site building tools is an easy installation of things like WordPress or Joombla.  I am one of those who knows nothing about website design, so I was getting frustrated and not getting anywhere.  GoDaddy isn't the greatest hosting sites, in fact, they do tend to nickel and dime you a bit.  One of their chief complaints.  But, their website builder allows those without knowledge to put up something semi-decent.  So, on that front, the Superbowl did its job of selling the service to me.  Looking at it form that angle, it makes sense.  If you go to GoDaddy's site and look at the WebSite Builder option, it fully focuses on Puppets by Gwen.