Hadn't seen the ads or read the coverage, but had seen headlines and tweets complaining. Had been thinking "How bad could they be?" so I just watched them . . oh crap who thought this was a good idea!
I don't think Groupon intended this reaction, I think their ad agency was stupid and Groupon had a blind spot because they knew what they meant to say. As opposed to the message they actually did communicate.
The weird thing is that they didn't even have to do anything edgy at all. They have a good product that people naturally want. All they had to do at this point was explain what they do.