EVERY year Americans celebrate the most sacred sports holiday ever broadcast on television: the Super Bowl. The championship game of the nation's most popular sport has evolved into a national social event. With the rise of advertising, the Super Bowl has become a spectacle for hard-core sports addicts, casual viewers and even non-fans who just want to watch the commercials. The first Sunday in February is not only when the two best football teams battle for a championship, but also when marketing agencies deliver their cream of the crop commercials. Every year has at least one commercial that crosses the thin line between edgy and controversial.
Groupon was that company this year, as it parodied a public service announcement for the suffering of the Tibetan people. Though the speaker announced that "the people of Tibet are in trouble, their very culture is in jeopardy," he goes on to say that "they still whip up an amazing fish curry" and then plugs Groupon for giving him a discount on the food. The commercial was poorly produced and has been received negatively by the media, but there is much more potential for it to benefit Groupon and the Tibetan people.
Those companies that have been able to get away with the most controversial commercials in recent years have been Bud Light and Go Daddy. While Groupon is far from being a prestigious company, its reputation is still a step above those two. Other more respected organizations have had their commercials rejected, notably PETA and the United Church of Christ. PETA parodied a Victoria's Secret commercial but was too suggestive with its vegetables and the United Church of Christ was too accepting of gays and lesbians for television. Groupon managed to get its commercial on-air, meaning it was a notch below PETA and the United Church of Christ in offensiveness. Although Groupon should be expected to retain more dignity than the Bud Lights of the advertising world, its commercial was only lukewarm in offensiveness and has been the victim of overreaction.
The Tibet commercial was unfunny and insensitive, but it was clearly not ill-intended. Groupon was not being cruel like the rejected "Jesus hates Obama" ad, nor was it being risqu
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