Groupon CEO Responds To Super Bowl Ad Fracas

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Do you know how bad it sucks to spend millions and millions on a Super Bowl ad that just pisses everyone off? No? Ask Groupon's CEO, he knows. :D

I've been spending the day listening to the negative feedback about our Tibet Super Bowl commercial, and want to take a crack at explaining why we created this campaign.
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I don't see what the big hubbub is about, its not like they were making fun of the causes they were highlighting. It may have been making light of the situations but for Americans who are inundated with absolute garbage for ads that do far far worse I think some people need to go have some beer and relax instead of getting their moral panties in a knot.
 
The CEO and Consumerist was spot on. Lots of near-naked women promoting the game and Groupon's ads were tasteless? To think we've come a long way from masochism and chauvinism.
 
this is a great example of single layered thinking that so many americans are plagued with these days. They are making you aware of the screwed up things going on in the world while making light of most people's real concerns in life.

They are making fun of the typical consumer. All the while trying to get those people to use their site. I think it's brilliant.
 
I think the ads are genius, look how many people are talking about it. I saw the one today with Elizabeth Hurley talking about the rain forest, and I was like "WTF"? Definitely caught my attention though, pretty funny too.
 
I think for the educated 30's + crowd this ad was tasteless taking into account their knowledge of Tibet and the Murder and destruction of these people and their culture. If anyone needs context, sure, just consider America in the early 1800's and our murder and extermination of the Native American Indian. Basically, same deal.

This commercial was way way off base. But, to the 18 - 25 tweeners which I am sure was the target demographic, sure, I see most of these kids laughing.
 
I think people are mad because they know they are guilty of the line of thinking the ad represents.

"There's people out there who have it worse than me. We should do s- OH LOOK, SALE!"
 
they did it because they knew it would piss someone off and get more attention because of it. plain and simple. publicity stunt:rolleyes:
 
I thought the ads were funny, people get their panties in a wad too easily.
 
Its only the politically correct crowd that are all up in arms about it, thinking it was way off base. For everyone else who has the maturity to understand the commercial, they realize it's not that big of a deal.
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
I think people are mad because they know they are guilty of the line of thinking the ad represents.

"There's people out there who have it worse than me. We should do s- OH LOOK, SALE!"
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My thought exactly.

These were great adds.

You get the message. You get the product. You create extra free advertising by stirring emotions. PERFECT!
 
I watched the ad and first though oh this is some flower loving saving the rain forest crap and then when it ended I did feel it was quite insulting.

Look at this though EVERYONE is talking about this company so do you really want to say this ad is fail?
 
horrible use of money... not because I was offended, but because I don't even remember seeing their commercial.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I think for the educated 30's + crowd this ad was tasteless taking into account their knowledge of Tibet and the Murder and destruction of these people and their culture. If anyone needs context, sure, just consider America in the early 1800's and our murder and extermination of the Native American Indian. Basically, same deal.

This commercial was way way off base. But, to the 18 - 25 tweeners which I am sure was the target demographic, sure, I see most of these kids laughing.
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I'll go with this.
 
I thought the ad was great. When it started I was confused as hell, then in the end I was laughing. I showed the way the american consumer thinks, hippies be damned.
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K10 said:
what percentage of americans know of and use groupon?
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I do, and so does my girlfriend. Nothing wrong with saving a few bucks to have fun. Groupon's huge in Chicago. Don't let yourself get sucked into the "I don't use it, so most people probably don't either" logic.
 
I watched it, I see where the humor was supposed to be, and then I also see where the screwed the pooch with this one.

The commercial was a bad call, and was in pretty poor taste
 
The commercial was hilarious. The "free Tibet" mantra is such an annoying piece of tired bullshit. A bunch of white Westerners who have nothing better to do than chant a slogan without knowing anything of the history of China or Tibet nine times out of ten.

If you're going to free anything, dumbass, free the Palestinians from the Israelis (whose military occupation you pay for with your tax dollars) or free the Iraqis and Afghans from YOU.

But oh no, those are all OK occupations because they're done by the West. Only Chinese occupations are bad. :rolleyes:
 
SixFootDuo said:
I think for the educated 30's + crowd this ad was tasteless taking into account their knowledge of Tibet and the Murder and destruction of these people and their culture. If anyone needs context, sure, just consider America in the early 1800's and our murder and extermination of the Native American Indian. Basically, same deal.

This commercial was way way off base. But, to the 18 - 25 tweeners which I am sure was the target demographic, sure, I see most of these kids laughing.
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Such self-righteous nonsense. What China does in Tibet is a fucking generosity compared with what the Israelis do in Palestine. And yet we shower the Israelis with money and weapons that they use to build racist "Jewish-only" settlements on top of someone else's land, which causes millions of Arabs to hate us, and then we concern ourselves with...Tibet?...Epic fail.
 
Matrices said:
Such self-righteous nonsense. What China does in Tibet is a fucking generosity compared with what the Israelis do in Palestine. And yet we shower the Israelis with money and weapons that they use to build racist "Jewish-only" settlements on top of someone else's land, which causes millions of Arabs to hate us, and then we concern ourselves with...Tibet?...Epic fail.
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psst.. this post is about Groupon ads. Try not to soapbox.
 
Matrices said:
The commercial was hilarious. The "free Tibet" mantra is such an annoying piece of tired bullshit. A bunch of white Westerners who have nothing better to do than chant a slogan without knowing anything of the history of China or Tibet nine times out of ten.
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Matrices, just wanted to inform you that "white Westerners" are not the only people chanting ''free Tibet".

As a Tibetan American, born and raised in Seattle, the only thing I found even remotely wrong with the commercial, is that "fish curry" is not a Tibetan dish, nor is it a Tibetan specialty. Back in the day, Tibetans didnt even eat fish (there were many fish in the rivers and lakes). This is like saying Italians make an amazing Teriyaki (not trying to offend anyone by this lol, just trying to make a point).

Like Matrices mentions, there are MANY people suffering all over the world, and all should be taken seriously. I personally know more about what happened in Tibet, due to my upbringing, than many other worldly topics, and to even use the term "what China does in Tibet is a fucking generosity" is just flat out insulting. Either way, we are all entitled to our own opinions, and regarding the commercial, people need to just lighten up and stop taking pointless shit (like Groupon commercials) so seriously.
 
Point is simple: clean your own house before bitching about others. If people *here* are going to get outraged about a commercial over Tibet, that is just sanctimonious, because there is nothing they can do about Tibet, whereas there are 100 things they can do about what their own country does, but conveniently, they choose to do nothing about that...

See my Orwell quote in sig for elaboration.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I think for the educated 30's + crowd this ad was tasteless taking into account their knowledge of Tibet and the Murder and destruction of these people and their culture. If anyone needs context, sure, just consider America in the early 1800's and our murder and extermination of the Native American Indian. Basically, same deal.

This commercial was way way off base. But, to the 18 - 25 tweeners which I am sure was the target demographic, sure, I see most of these kids laughing.
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I think being a whiny little bitch is a byproduct of youth rather than age. The feigned outrage is from liberal college kids and 20-something hipsters with nothing better to do.
 
I thought the advertisements were brilliant. They make the viewer feel guilty. If that feeling of guilt offends people then people have a far more serious problem.

Also, taking offense is stupid.
 
People are evidently too sensitive these days, I was waiting for the part where I became offended in any way from watching their ads on youtube.
 
I find it so amusing that after the Superbowl I find news everywhere about this Groupon ad and Christina Aguilera messing up the National Anthem and nobody has talked about the game as far as I see. I asked my girlfriend last night if she knows who won the game, and she said the same thing I did. Who the fuck knows. The media's too busy whining about Christina and Groupon. The game must have sucked.
 
Azhar said:
I find it so amusing that after the Superbowl I find news everywhere about this Groupon ad and Christina Aguilera messing up the National Anthem and nobody has talked about the game as far as I see. I asked my girlfriend last night if she knows who won the game, and she said the same thing I did. Who the fuck knows. The media's too busy whining about Christina and Groupon. The game must have sucked.
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Agreed. I didn't watch it, but usually you hear who won all over the place. I still don't know :p
 
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