Christopher Guest directed those Groupon ads
And other things pissed viewers might not know about those controversial Super Bowl clips
Groupon whips up an amazing fish curry.
The whole local Internet was abuzz last night and this morning about that Tibet-related Groupon ad that ran during the Super Bowl. And considering it made light of a whole culture's serious persecution, yeah, the company deserved the criticism it was getting. But here’s the thing: It expected the criticism, and that ad was a joke—at least kind of.
In actuality, it was part of Groupon’s Save The Money campaign, in which—and yeah, this is a little convoluted—if a user makes a donation to one of four charities, they get a Groupon voucher for the same amount of money. The Tibet Fund is, in fact, one of those charities.
Additionally—and here’s where Groupon may have made its biggest mistake—there are two other ads running concurrently with this one, and all of them were directed by Christopher Guest, of best-mockumentaries-ever fame. One of the spots features Cuba Gooding Jr. talking about how majestic whales are, and then how he got a great deal on a whale watching cruise; the other has Elizabeth Hurley espousing on the horrors of rainforest deforestation while talking about Brazilian waxing. Both of those are, objectively speaking, pretty hilarious, and may have been a more palatable choice for the Super Bowl-viewing population who get their jollies from watching someone get hit in the face with a Pepsi Max—but, yeah, that ship has sailed.
If a joke has to be explained, it’s not that great of a joke. But does it make a difference if, once the joke is explained, it’s pretty funny?
