How Will Groupon Respond to Super Bowl Ad Backlash?

Remember when you were a toddler, and you thought you could make your mom’s friends laugh by doing something you really didn’t know was inappropriate, disgusting or offensive? And then your mom slapped you across the behind (or face, if your mom was old school) and scolded you with the phrase, “that’s not funny?”

Thanks to its mock PSA commercials it ran during the Super Bowl, Groupon – the site that offers deal-of-the-day coupons in several communities here and abroad – was sent to bed without any fish curry:

Groupon seemed excited about the work Crispin Porter + Bogusky did. So excited they blogged about it before the game. The first three comments, which were posted before the ads aired of FOX, were positive. But it was just preamble to a storm of viewers angry that Groupon mocked the plight of the people of Tibet.

And it doesn’t help Groupon that one negative comment came from Bill Nicolai, a senior consultant at Lenser:

I have never used a Groupon coupon and after witnessing your shamefully exploitive ad, I never will. And by the way, I am a consultant in the retail internet business with clients whose sales are in the billions and I will do my best to minimize their commercial use of your service. You deserve to fail.

Groupon is also getting hammered on Twitter (where the damage control seems to have just begun an hour ago) and on its Facebook page (where it’s just starting). Groupon did try to get the ball rolling on Facebook, and posted this after the backlash began: “Support Tibet’s largest charity here: http://savethemoney.groupon.com/”

And that’s where the problem began for Groupon. They could pledge zillions to social concerns around the world. But when you poke fun at it in a minute-long spot (and don’t get the message across in the commercials that you’re accepting donations for the causes), it becomes epic fail.

That’s why today, instead of influencers sharing their love for Groupon in the social networks, they are taking a back seat to users who vowing to cancel their subscriptions.