Analysis and List of 3 Groupon Ads: Superbowl 2011

I have had some questions about this lately on my blog, so I thought that I would embed a list of the three Groupon ads from the Super Bowl in 2011. These ads are famous (infamous) for their controversial depictions and seemingly mocking attitude towards the Tibetan culture, protecting whales, and deforestation in Brazil. Love them or hate them, they're all here for you to enjoy:

1. Tibetan Culture:



2. Saving The Whales:



3. Brazilian Deforestation:



My analysis: I think that the ideas for these commercials were ones that were probably funny on paper, on the cutting room floor, and all the way up to 10 minutes after they aired in the Superbowl when the ad agency and management for Groupon both had a major "facepalm" moment. The problem here is that there are a certain percentage of people who will find a commercial like any of the ones shown above highly offensive, no matter how well intentioned the commercials were in the first place. Sure, sometimes people get too wound up about political issues (what the commercials were trying to poke fun at) but the delivery here probably only serves to agitate that tension.

Many people are already laughing a little on the inside about, for example, the highly strung environmentalists who take saving the whales as a personal mission in life. The environmentalists, on the other hand, take their work very seriously. So, on the one side, you've got people who already get the inside joke your commercial is trying to tell and have gotten the joke for years(and so probably don't care that much). On the other hand, you have a group of environmentalists, human rights activists who are ready to crucify you for mocking their causes. Does any of this sound like a combination Groupon's advertising team should have touched with a ten foot pole? Not to me.

What do you think about these commercials? Were they harmless fun, in poor taste, or downright offensive? Please leave your comments below.

Related articles

• Groupon Super Bowl Ads Draw Controversy (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Disaster in Slow-Mo: Groupon Unapologetic About Super Bowl Ads (zdnet.com)
• Groupon explains Super Bowl ads, highlights giving (cnn.com)
• Groupon Super Bowl Ad Makes Fun of Tibet & Whales, Provokes Ridiculous Controversy (slashgear.com)