Groupon regrets - pulls 'polarizing' Super Bowl ads off air

Groupon has decided to pull those polarizing ads off the air, announces CEO Andrew Mason on the company blog with the post: "One Last Post on the Super Bowl"

Five days have passed since the Super Bowl, and one thing is clear – our ads offended a lot of people. Tuesday I posted an explanation, but as many of you have pointed out, if an ad requires an explanation, that means it didn’t work.

We hate that we offended people, and we’re very sorry that we did – it’s the last thing we wanted. We’ve listened to your feedback, and since we don’t see the point in continuing to anger people, we’re pulling the ads (a few may run again tomorrow – pulling ads immediately is sometimes impossible). We will run something less polarizing instead. We thought we were poking fun at ourselves, but clearly the execution was off and the joke didn’t come through. I personally take responsibility; although we worked with a professional ad agency, in the end, it was my decision to run the ads.
To the charities (for which we expect to net over $500,000) and others that have spoken out on our behalf, we appreciate your support.
To those who were offended, I feel terrible that we made you feel bad. While we’ve always been a little quirky, we certainly aren’t trying to be the kind of company that builds its brand on creating controversy – we think the quality of our product is a much stronger message.

Both Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Mason are known for being irreverent and whacky, but the Super Bowl is serious business. ;) Okay, maybe not that serious, it was Crispins earlier work on the Hulu super bowl ad that attracted Groupon reveals Andrew in an earlier post.

Groupon - Tibet (2011) :30 (USA)

Groupon - Save the Whales / Cuba Gooding Jr - (2011)

Groupon - Save the Rainforest / Elizabeth Hurley - (2011)

Previously: In the battle between Groupon and LivingSocial.com does the most offensive win?