General advertising culture crassly manipulates desires in a way that I find insulting. This commercial purposely fucks that manipulation up. It's like a middle finger to the soulless beer commercials that I find tiresome, the "being told what to like" mentality.
This commercial also has a point, in an Emperor's Clothes sort of way. People are angry because they don't like feeling like their concern for whales, Tibet, or the cause du jour is insincere even if they aren't doing much to actually contribute.
If you're offended, step back and look at why. Is it because you don't like thinking about how absurd American culture is (in effect if not intent), importing Tibetan food for trendy twenty-somethings to enjoy, turning concern for rainforests into absurd Disneyland-style Rainforest Cafes. Because that's a _true_ analysis. If you're upset because a commercial is an _accurate portrayal of life_, then that's not entirely sensible.
On the other hand if you're upset because "They didn't do commercials right, they're supposed to follow a pattern/distort data/just be funny," I'm unimpressed with your orthodoxy.
The world is absurd. I like a company that is willing to spend millions of dollars to point that absurdity out using itself as an example. People aren't going to stop buying groupons because of this ad, and a successful ad campaign wouldn't save them from going bust like Pets.com (as is documented elsewhere).
In other words, _this ad meant nothing anyway,_ and it embraces that to actually be pretty funny and insightful.
In my opinion.