Ask HN: Anyone Else Sick at the Groupon Commercials?

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.

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.

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.

I think you guys need to start exercising or something