Megan Haeffele

Super Bowl Tibet AdIssue & implications in

pubic relations

2011 Super Bowl XLV

• An estimated 111 million viewers

• Nearly 50% watch the commercials more than they watch the game

• Media covers 10 best and worst Super Bowl commercials.

Ouch

“offensive” “misguided”

“insensitive”

“Screw Groupon!”

“tasteless” “dumb, dumber, dumbest”

Once Upon a Groupon

Founder& CEO,

AndrewMason

Bull campaigns+ -

The Point.org =

America’s response

• Unfavorable Tweets

• Unsubscribers

• Media attention that evening and the following days to come

• Bottom 10 of Super Bowl Ad comparisons

• Unethical

Who had heard of Groupon prior to this year’s Super Bowl?

Who has since made an account with Groupon?

“Groupon is so powerful because

Americans would rather get a half-price

deal than contribute to worthy causes”

– Chris Matysczyk, award-winning creative

director and advisor of major corporations on

content creation & marketing

Non-apology apology

We wanted to clarify the intention of the Super Bowl ad yesterday. The humor was designed to draw attention to causes including Greenpeace, The Tibet Fund, and Rainforest Action Network. Groupon actually started as a collective action and philanthropy site (ThePoint.com).  Collective action is in Groupon's DNA and this campaign pokes fun at its own roots. Anyone can go to www.SaveTheMoney.org (launched before the ads aired yesterday) and and help these causes

Groupon’s Reaction

• GrouBlogPon

• Groupon’s roots are in social activism

• Sort of an inside Joke

• “Opposite effect” will raise awareness about Tibet

• 5 days later….

• It didn’t work

“We hate that we offended people, and we’re very sorry that we did – it’s the last thing we wanted.”

“We thought we were poking fun at ourselves, but clearly the execution was off and the joke didn’t come through.”

So, do we forgive Groupon?

• Business Insider Survey

• People seemed to no longer care about the ad

• IPO at $25 billion!

• Professionals still question Groupon’s maturity

Suggestions

• Apologize first, explain later

• Groupon was affective in customer service training

• Larger philanthropic gesture