Groupon Super Bowl Commercials (Bad PR?)

The Situation:

Big social coupon company Groupon is a small upstart that has quickly grown to be a big part of social coupons and a way for people to get great deals on daily products and services.

As stated by one of Groupon’s representatives in a blog post, the people at Groupon resisted using TV commercials for two years because they didn’t believe that they were worth the money and that they didn’t work very well. During the Super Bowl though, they released their first TV commercials.

The series of commercials unfortunately exploit bad things going on in the world, like the oppression of the Tibetan people, deforestation and the dwindling numbers of the whale population to make their TV spots successful. How did people react to the commercials?

The PR Angle:

Many people ended up being very offended by what Groupon did with its commercials. Exploiting others’ misery for your gain is not a good idea. Also, after doing some research, I could not find an instance where anyone from Groupon apologized for its misstep. After such a backlash from the public, making an apology would be a great thing for them to do. What they have said is that their commercials bring to light the atrocities going on in other countries. Like anyone believed for a second that that was their intention.

On the other hand, the people at Groupon are doing something good to make up for their lapse of judgment. They have set up ways for people to donate to the causes that were talked about in the commercials. They even say that Groupon will match donations up to $100,000 for the three featured charities.

“You can view the already aired commercials, as well as new ones as we release them, at SaveTheMoney.org. And if you’ve saved enough money for yourself and feel like saving something else, you can donate to mission-driven organizations that are doing great work for the causes featured in our PSA parodies. If you guys pony up, Groupon will contribute matching donations of up to $100,000 for three featured charities – Rainforest Action Network, buildOn, and the Tibet Fund — and Groupon credit of up to $100,000 for contributions made to Greenpeace.”

Check out a couple of the commercials I’ve posted here and let me know how you feel about them in the comments below.

Groupon Source

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Google Person Finder (Good PR)

The situation:

Undoubtedly, most people have heard about the unfortunate natural disasters that happened in Japan recently and what kind of destruction they caused. With damage to infrastructure that would take millions of dollars to repair, thousands of deaths and even more people missing, the nation of Japan and it’s citizens could use a lot of help right now.

Google has stepped up to help people find missing individuals in Japan and also to help people who have information on missing individuals report that information. Google with its vast array of databases and servers, have the power and resources to provide this kind of service. At the Google Crisis Response site for Japan, people can not only search for data on missing people and report data on missing people, but they can also make donations to the Red Cross, get links to the latest information on the power plants, rolling blackouts, government agencies, public transit, shelters and more.

The PR angle:

This is simply a great service that Google is providing to not only Japan, but the world. This is not the first time this resource has been implemented by Google either. It was also used during the Haiti and Chile disasters.

Even though it’s not related in any way, the recent comments from the public criticizing Google’s motto of “Don’t be evil” are muffled by the company’s great deed. From a company that does not have to do anything at all, this is definitely NOT an evil thing to do.

Kudos Google.

Google Person Finder (Available in many languages)

Google Crisis Response

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