Leachman, who turns 85 this month, has offered a steady stream of criticism on her Twitter account about GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons over his elephant-shooting video, which surfaced last month. “Elephants are meant to be loved, not mercilessly shot to death,” reads one of Leachman’s tweets from April 1. “Takes more balls to care for and love an elephant than it is [sic] to shoot it. You read that, @DrBobParsons?” reads another.
A Network Solutions rep, though, says Leachman is acting on her own accord. Go_Granny, a Twitter account run by Network Solutions on behalf of Leachman, has not mentioned Parsons or GoDaddy.
Leachman, who has about 16,000 followers on Twitter, starred in a video for Network Solutions in February criticizing GoDaddy’s salacious Super Bowl ads. She is also a vegetarian who appeared in an ad for animal rights group PETA in 2009.
Network Solutions has responded to the controversy via its blog by offering a deal to transfer a domain name for $6.99 when users enter the code “elephant.”
Meanwhile, Leachman's tweets are not unlike the attack ads a political action committee may run on behalf of candidates who could not make accusations without damaging their own images. Leachman can cause damage to Parsons's reputation by saying things that could make Network Solutions look petty if it was directly releasing her statements.
For his part, Parsons has been using