I think now we can safely say that Groupon doesn't
do anything by half-measures.
Its first national retail deal was big: The Gap.
Its foray into TV advertising: Super Bowl XLV, baby (with a spot
from CP&B). And its first gaffe? That was huge, too.
Those Super Bowl ads, a supposed parody of
celebrity charity endorsements (and directed by master
mockumentarian Christopher Guest), touched off a fury in the
Twitterverse and elsewhere. People complained the spots, starring
Liz Hurley, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Timothy Hutton and addressing,
respectively, the Brazilian rain forest, the plight of whales and
Tibet, were in poor taste and made light of serious issues.
Timothy Hutton gets laughs, cheap eats in Groupon spot.
The Chicago Tribune, Groupon's hometown paper, quoted a New Yorker who said he
felt like he'd been "punched in the face" when he saw the Tibet
ad.
And at least one comedian, Conan O'Brien, had some fun with the
spot:
Groupon, for its part, said it is making fun of
sanctimonious celebrities -- but it is also supporting the causes
it features in the ads.
Guess all this probably could've been avoided if it had said so
somewhere in those ads, maybe by way of a web address on the screen at the end
or something.
And Groupon is staying true to its rep for going all out: It's
not apologizing or backing down. In a
post on its blog, CEO Andrew Mason said:
"Our ads highlight the often trivial nature of stuff on Groupon
when juxtaposed against bigger world issues, making fun of Groupon.
Why make fun of ourselves? Because it's different -- ads are
traditionally about shameless self-promotion, and we've always
strived to have a more honest and respectful conversation with our
customers."
But Mason did say in the post that Groupon will tweak the ads to
make clear that the group-buying company is, in fact, supporting
the causes in the spots: "In fact, the feedback led us to make
changes to the end of our ads that further encourage our
fundraising."
Good move, Groupon. Anyway, I'm still in for a $25 massage.