Groupon CEO: Our ‘Tibet’ Super Bowl ad was just misunderstood

February 8, 2011 By Andrew Couts

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason says in a blog post that its "Tibet" Super Bowl ad was supposed to poke fun at the company's social activist past — not the Tibetan people.

In the wake of the tidal wave of negative criticism that followed Groupon‘s “Tibet” Super Bowl commercial, the coupon company says the ads were intended, not to offend, but to enlighten.

In case you missed it: Groupon ran a commercial during CBS’s broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday, which seemed to tactlessly equate the long-time suffering of people in Tibet with the ability of Groupon users to save money at a Tibetan restaurant.

Immediately after the ad aired, the Internet exploded with negative feedback. Bloggers took to their keyboards to lambaste Groupon’s poor choice in ads. In fact, everyone, it seemed, from the ever-cynical Gawker to both Chinese and Tibetan activists, found something offensive about the ad.

Turns out, the whole thing was just one big misunderstanding. As Groupon CEO Andrew Mason explained on the company blog before the commercial hit the air, the “Tibet” spot — as well as three other versions, released on Groupon’s SaveTheMoney.org, which give commercial whaling, rain forest deforestation, and severe poverty equal treatment — was intended to poke fun at Groupon itself, not the plight of an oppressed people, or any other serious cause.

Well, that wasn’t enough to stop the flow of negative feedback drowning the post-game conversation, so Mason returned to the blog late yesterday to address his company’s critics:

We take the causes we highlighted extremely seriously – that’s why we created this campaign in partnership with many hallmark community organizations, for whom we’re raising money at SaveTheMoney.org. Groupon’s roots are in social activism…In our two short years as a business, we’ve already raised millions of dollars for national charities like Donors Choose and Kiva.

When we think about commercials that offend us, we think of those that glorify antisocial behavior – like the scores of Super Bowl ads that are built around the crass objectification of women. Unlike those ads, no one walks away from our commercials taking the causes we highlighted less seriously. Not a single person watched our ad and concluded that it’s cool to kill whales. In fact – and this is part of the reason we ran them – they have the opposite effect.

Regardless of whether the effect they had was “opposite” or not, it certainly wasn’t what Groupon intended. Hopefully for them, their customers will forgive their comedic ineptitude — or just forget all about this as soon as they save some cash. Speaking of which, is anyone hungry for some Tibetan food?

Showing 3 comments

bigpics at 11:08pm 9th February 2011 I for one am still in a snit about how short-sighted they were about this. Apologizing and raising funds doesn't change the offensive stupidity of what they did to trivialize the plight of the Tibetan people. Contributions aren't going to change the Chinese policy of "ethnic watering down" (as opposed to outright "cleansing") Beijing has pursued in continuing to stream ever more ethnic Chinese into the region, just to name one ongoing depredation of an ancient, but still vital culture. Groupon talked about their heroic stances on "the crass objectification of women," which does not thing one to excuse their crass (i.e., done to make money) dehumanization of an entire people who were forcibly annexed into another country. Red herring, smoke screen, etc. In other words, I hope people stay on their case. The only way this can turn out well karmically is if their epic vision fail increases awareness of JUST how off base the ad was and rouses people for Tibet out of totally justified anger at Groupon.
ChrisA25 at 2:10pm 8th February 2011 Groupon didn’t exceed my expectations. The Tibet commercial was too offensive! Chris, http://workerscomppayasyougo.com/
appropraiteness at 1:18pm 8th February 2011 Dear Andrew MAson-Please look for a Tibetan restaurant and see the difference in cuisine. The fact is,It is not at all a Tibetan restaurant,Its an Indian Nepali Restaurant -http://www.himalayanrestaurant.com .So obviously fish curry is not a Tibetan Dish and the dress that server was wearing is not a Tibetan Traditional dress. The ad puts many of the viewer into dilemma,at the begin it talks about how Tibetans cultural is being Jeopardize and the next minute you see this guy serving a fish curry which is not at all a TIbetan dish-Is the ad jeopardize the Tibetan culture here??? Tibetans do appreciate(groupon) that the ad was intended well but it failed to do a thorough research which ultimately have misinformed many viewers. The ad should have the organization that are benefitting. Please next time do a thorough research before you put it out to the public.