

Ask HN: Anyone Else Sick at the Groupon Commercials? - maukdaddy

Completely tasteless.  If I were a VC I'd be FURIOUS right now!
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jcr
Sure, one could take offense at Groupon leveraging the situation in Tibet for
financial gain, but there is a better way to think about it.

My first thought when seeing the ad was, "This will be banned in China."

My second thought when seeing the ad was, "That was an extremely clever way of
raising (general public) awareness about Tibet on a massive scale while still
advertising their service.

The fact some people are angry, and talking about it, is actually a good thing
for Tibet. --It's far better than the usual silence.

~~~
maukdaddy
No it isn't. It's a ploy to drive more sales, with an obligatory "charity"
drive to offset the tastelessness of the entire campaign. Just because Groupon
is a tech darling doesn't give them a free pass.

~~~
jcr
Try to think about it this way; the fact you (and many others) are upset and
talking about it results in a massive headache for the keepers of the Great
Firewall of China. If someone doesn't know about the problems in Tibet, and
they wonder what all the fuss is about, they might actually learn something
about the situation.

It might be in poor taste and enable financial gain, but it still does some
good... --Then again, having HN blocked in China would be an unfortunate side
effect.

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Skywing
Maybe I'm wrong here, but no - I take the commercials for what they are -
they're super bowl commercials. They're also doing exactly what Groupon
wanted. People are now discussing them because they were slightly
controversial. I also feel like they got the point across very well. When it's
all said and done, I'm willing to bet these will have been a success for
Groupon.

I mean, really, who did these anger? I think the media only writes articles
saying that these angered people to make people think others are angry. But
really, who is angry? It's a commercial.

~~~
maukdaddy
Horse shit. Everyone skewered Kenneth Cole earlier this week and Groupon just
did something even worse. They fucked up big time.

Edit: Making fun of genocide and deforestation is completely out of line. CEO
should have known better, ad agency should have known better, advisors should
have known better, VCs should have known better, the list goes on and on.

~~~
flipside
You do know that Groupon is matching donations to all 3 causes up to $100,000
right?

If it's a choice between ignoring and acknowledging/raising money/pissing
people off, at least Groupon is doing something.

Not offending people is a surprisingly ineffective policy for change, believe
it or not.

~~~
jcr
flipside, you don't have an email address listed in your HN profile. Please
contact me via email if you get a chance. My address is in my HN profile. I've
got a question for you.

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anigbrowl
Yes indeed. I was really offended, and my in-laws (who are Asian) were first
astonished and then furious. We shop a lot online, and have been fairly
regular Groupon customers (on higher value items), but not any more.

I'm amazed they would degrade their brand that way. Marketing director should
be fired immediately, They need to spend way more on charitable donations now
than the $3m they spent to insult a variety of popular causes and the people
who support them.

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pekinb
I think you guys need to start exercising or something

~~~
Dramatize
No, I must express my interweb rage.

