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Rose French writes about religious and spiritual matters for the Star Tribune. Before arriving in the Twin Cities this fall, she covered religion for the Associated Press in Tennessee, where she wrote about the Southern Baptists, United Methodists, Gideons and other religious groups and issues.
E-mail Rose with your thoughts or questions.
Groupon pulls controversial Super Bowl ads
Posted by: Rose French under Super Bowl Updated: February 11, 2011 - 9:53 AM
Turns out Groupon’s controversial Super Bowl ads didn’t quite win over viewers, and the company has decided to pull them from the air.
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason apologized for the ads in a blog post Thursday. Many people were offended by the ad that aired during the Super Bowl, which featured actor Timothy Hutton talking about the plight of the Tibetan people, then glibly does an about-turn and says he could still save money on Tibetan restaurants because of Groupon.
In the two other ads, actor Cuba Gooding Jr. bemoans the world’s dwindling number of whales before talking up a discounted whale-watching cruise and actress Elizabeth Hurley bemoans endangered Amazon rainforests before promoting a deal on a Brazilian wax.
“Our ads offended a lot of people,” Mason wrote. “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.”
What do you think? Were the ads offensive?
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