http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0212-groupon-ads-20110212,0,4347159.story

Have you seen the ads? Did you get 'the humor?'

Tibetan ad that started it all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87RrhRyD-Pc

Save the whales...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fboyGZm_IdM

Save the rainforest....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z206ipPhuFQ

Personally, my knee jerk reaction was this wasn't going to sit well with the public. I 'got' the humor they were going for, but like people said, if you've gotta explain it, it is not funny. I actually think they could have pulled it off if their production values hadn't been so good.

I am, by no means, politically correct. But I thought the ads were in poor taste. A backlash doesn't surprise me. Kind of along the lines of someone showing child labor in a sweatshop in Asia, then switching gears to bubbly, "But aren't these some great Nikes?"

I didnt think they were that bad??

The only demographic that retailers care about is the 18-34 year old's and their advertising worked on me because i didnt find any of them offensive.

I guess the problem is that they showed real life issues and boomers take offense to that. Ive always thought that its funny that most people live their lives knowing that bad stuff is going on around them but then and only then act offended when someone actually addresses it.

I know whales are dying, but i dont really care so im not going to walk around acting like i do. Once again it must be a generational thing.

Kinda lame. I'm fine with that style of humor, but not when a significant portion of your target audience is too ill-informed to recognize that it is an actual problem. Not really upset about it enough to give it a moments thought though.