BP Editors
Groupon spent millions of dollars on their SuperBowl ads, so it’s unfortunate that one of their commercials turned out to be so demeaning to the Tibetan people and their struggles that it caused incredible backlash and had to be pulled just a few days after airing. This waste of time and energy featured actor Timothy Hutton discussing human rights abuses in Tibet before taking only a second to transition into praising the fish curry at Himalayan restaurants and thanking Groupon for his ability to reap the delicious deals.
“The people of Tibet are in trouble,” Hutton explains in the cringe-inducing ad, “Their very culture is in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry.”
Groupon faced thousands of disparaging comments, letters and phone calls accusing the company of trivializing the issues of the Tibetan people, forcing them to pen an apology, feebly state that they “poke fun at everyone,” and offer to donate money to charity — as long as their customers (or former ones) did so first.
