"Groupon faces backlash from rights groups over Super Bowl ads; Spots made light of Tibet, nature" by Mae Anderson, Associated Press / February 8, 2011
NEW YORK — Online coupon site Groupon Inc.’s first foray into Super Bowl advertising aimed for humor but instead struck a raw nerve with viewers and human rights groups for mocking serious social issues.
In one commercial, Timothy Hutton says “the people in Tibet are in trouble, their culture is in jeopardy,’’ as pictures of Tibet are shown on the screen. The punch line? It turns out he’s talking about a fish curry deal groupon.com offered.
Yeah, I found that odd. At first I was like "What is this doing on during the Super Bowl?" Then the offensive insult.
The ad, which debuted during the biggest night in advertising, when spots go for $3 million for 30 seconds, sparked widespread negative reaction on Twitter and Facebook....
How much money was WASTED on ADVERTISING?
The negative reaction is a black eye for the two-year-old start-up, based in Chicago, which has grown quickly, spawned numerous imitators, and enjoyed investor enthusiasm. It rejected a $6 billion takeover bid from Google Inc. last year.
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And what is at the bottom of every pile?
"Groupon, FTD give refunds on flower deal after complaints" by Associated Press / February 14, 2011
NEW YORK — The coupon site Groupon.com and flower company FTD Group are offering refunds after getting complaints that a Valentine’s Day flower deal wasn’t so sweet.
The companies said they did not do anything wrong. But online, people accused FTD of inflating prices for Groupon customers who used a coupon for $20 off an FTD flower purchase of $40 or more.
Several Groupon customers found the flowers they had bought were priced lower, as sale items, on FTD’s own website. They complained on the Groupon site and on the Web that FTD was making up for the Groupon discount by jacking up the prices Groupon users paid.
That was not the case, FTD Group’s president, Rob Apatoff, said yesterday. It was clear on the sites that the coupon did not apply to sale items, he said. Still, the company will credit customers’ accounts to give them the sale price, even if they do not ask for it.
Both companies said they will make full refunds if people aren’t satisfied.
“At no time did we inflate any prices. Absolutely not,’’ Apatoff said. “Because there was some confusion with a few, we decided to step up and do the right thing to make sure everybody was happy.’’
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Also see: Happy Valentine's Day
