© 2024
NPR for Northern Colorado
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Groupon Gives In: Pulls Controversial Super Bowl Ads

"Online coupon site Groupon Inc. is pulling controversial ads less than a week after they first aired during the Super Bowl," the Associated Press reports.

As we reported earlier this week, the three commercials got a lot of attention — much of it not kind — because some viewers thought they poked fun at some serious issues (saving whales, rain forests and the people of Tibet).

The company said that wasn't the intention, but the criticism grew.

"We hate that we offended people, and we're very sorry that we did — it's the last thing we wanted," co-founder Andrew Mason said in a posting on the company's site.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.