This Groupon ad, which aired during that last Superbowl, opens with mountainous scenes of Tibet. Timothy Hutton somberly narrates about the troubles the people in Tibet face. The commercial then cuts to a Chicago restaurant where Hutton is eating fish curry and in a much more cheerful tone, advertises the deal he and 200 others got on Groupon. In the later part of the commercial Hutton switches from describing the conditions in Tibet to describing the Tibetan food he was able to get in Chicago. This ad attempts to appeal to the general American public.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFT2yjk0A
Please use the prompts from the blog project assignment sheet when responding.
After watching this commercial I perceived it as funny and offensive at the same time. To respond to the group’s post, I want to analyze the interface of the featured video. The video starts out showing the beautiful mountains of Tibet and cultural emblems of the region. All of the sudden the camera changes to a Chicago Himalayan restaurant that serves really good Tibet food. The first time I watched the video I thought the visual element of switching settings was very comical in a sense. I perceived this element of the commercial funny because I was not expecting such a sudden change. However, after watching it again and analyzing the video, I found that it was offensive towards the region of Tibet. The commercial identified Tibet as a region that has a culture in jeopardy. Bringing such a mood to the commercial caused the viewer, or at least myself, to feel bad for the region. Furthermore, I thought the commercial was going to be about donating money to the region. When the setting in the commercial changed it portrayed Tibet’s culture as being Americanized because their food was being served in the United States. Many people believe this commercial to be offensive. After watching some other videos on YouTube about the commercial, I found one that made fun of and criticized Groupon. On the Conan O’Brien Show, Conan stated “…they exploited Tibet’s troubles to promote their website…” (O’Brien). The show went on to make fun of the commercial and Groupon itself. The link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=syF3oLRhztg. I think that Groupon should have never aired the commercial because it is offensive towards Tibet. On YouTube alone the like to dislike ratio is 266 to 1, 213. However, I do not think that Groupon Inc. intended for the commercial to be offensive towards Tibet. I believe that the commercial was intended to be funny and promote saving money with Groupon in a comical way.
ReplyDeleteIn analyzing the video Groupon reveals the concept that Americans are aware of issues in other countries but turn a blind eye. Such usage of an idiomatic expression reveals that the meaning of the video cannot be directly inferred from Timothy Hutton’s narration. Therefore, the viewer has to read into the context of the video in order to understand the meaning behind it. Drawing from what I have seen, if problems in other countries do not directly affect one’s own nation, the majority see the hardships of other countries as being unfortunate and normally don’t dwell on it long because it doesn’t directly affect them. This, therefore, can be seen as a representation of self-centeredness. As a society in a positive state of existence, we often have trouble in our sincerity toward the difficulties of other nations. As long as we can get want we want, in this case Tibetan food, we don’t see a need to dwell upon distant issues. The comments for this video reveal a sense of disagreement towards the video. I, like Ryan, “perceived it as [both] funny and offensive at the same time”. A large number of commenters correspond on the notion that this was tasteless and they will no longer be using groupon’s services while others felt it did what it was designed to do, provide a comical video to catch the eye of the consumer at the Superbowl. Ryan makes a sound point in his assumption that Groupon’s intention was not to create an offensive commercial towards the Tibetans. Rather, it was designed to illicit a response from its viewers. Sometimes you have to do things that are not accepted in order to gain attention. In this case, no matter if people agree or disagree, the commercial plants Groupon’s name in your head. As long as it results in more customers, the meaning has little value. Therefore, such comical scenarios hold little or no weight in the relevance of life. It is simply a means of advertisement to benefit the company.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this commercial, I thought the idea that they used to present their company was very controversial. This commercial tried to use pathos to attract more audiences. They started the commercial by telling how Tibet’ culture is in jeopardy. However, I think this only brings displeasure to most of the audiences especially Tibetans, instead of drawing attentions. To be honest, who will like to see people introducing other country’s culture in a bad way to draw more customers to their company? This will only offend the audiences and people will think this company is very selfish for introducing Tibet’s culture in a bad way for their own benefit, which gives the company a bad reputation. Moreover, they used comedy to persuade the audiences. After telling how Tibet’s culture is in jeopardy, they tell how Tibet makes the best fish curry. However, the audiences will not perceive this as a humor, but they will think this commercial is making a joke on one’s culture, which will offend them furthermore.
ReplyDeleteI agree on Leanne comment: “Sometimes you have to do things that are not accepted in order to gain attention” and I disagree on the other comment she made: “no matter if people agree or disagree, the commercial plants Groupon’s name in your head. As long as it results in more customers, the meaning has little value.” It is right that people have to create unique things to attract more audiences. However, I think creating offensive commercial to attract more audiences is not right thing to do. Like Leanne said, it will stay on people’s mind, but it will not always attract more customers. When the company comes across their mind, they will neglect it because of how that commercial offended them. Furthermore, if the audiences get better meaning out of the commercial, it gives the company a greater chance to attract more audiences.
This video has cause a wide range of opinions and thoughts among viewers. It's controversial aspect has created responses such as being offensive yet comical. I agree with lfs93 that this video shows how self-centered America has become. Although it addresses the poor conditions in Tibet, the ad just uses this fact as a way to draw the audience into what their company is offering. At first, the viewer thinks the comercial will be about helping Tibet, but it completely changes so that American can get it better, the price of Tibetan food. However, considering the fact that it is a taboo for Tibetans to eat fish, it shows they did not even think about how people would react to this ad. Although the comercial says Tibet is in jeopardy, they only think about how good their food is and how we, as Americans, can get it for a cheaper price.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Yeram when saying even though this advertising technique brings attention to the name of the company, it seems to draw a lot of negative attention, which can only "give the company a bad reputation." I found it clever how the comercial took a quick transition to advertise its services on Groupon, but also saw it as offensive, like others. Groupon was successful in gaining talk about themselves and created a buzz among viewers, but also showed the company's values and how the community either found it comical and successful, or offensive and distasteful.
This commercial is offensive to both the people of Tibet and the people of America. It makes Americans look bad in implying that they are self-centered and that they do not care about the culture or people of Tibet (they just want cheaper food). Also, the people of Tibet would typically be upset by the fact that they say their countries culture is in jeopardy and Groupon is talking about getting cheaper food in America rather than helping out their country. When I first watched this video, I initially thought that they were going to try to fundraise for the country by the use of pathos in the beginning of the commercial. But, I was extremely surprised when they changed scenes into the Chicago restaurant. After watching the video, most people’s comments on the video were negative. Some comments are very offensive towards Tibet and America. The comments that struck me the most, were the ones that said that fish curry is not even a common food eaten in Tibet. After doing some research, I discovered that fish curry really is not that popular among the people of Tibet. “For the record, Tibetans are not known for fish curries and the Himalayan Restaurant in Chicago is actually run by Nepalese and Indians, and thus not Tibetan” (Bhuching Tsering). This is very offensive to the people of Tibet because they were not even accurate in the common foods that Tibetan’s eat. Groupon’s intentions were obviously not meant to be offensive, they were meant to be comical. They were successful in raising awareness to the dying culture of Tibet, but most people would not be in favor of Groupon’s company after watching this commercial.
ReplyDeleteI thought the link that Ryan Little found was extremely successful in portraying the controversy that was brought up by this commercial. This is not the only commercial where Groupon used this tactic. The other commercial began talking about the Hindenberg Blimp disaster and then changed scenes to a man eating a sandwich who said “But its nothing like the savings explosion you can get on a blimpy sandwich with Groupon” (:54). This is extremely hurtful to the people that were involved in this disaster. Yes, it may be funny but it does not make someone want to buy a Groupon. They raise awareness of a tragedy or a problem in the world (making people feel bad) and then turn it around and try to make a sale. The Conan O’Brien show portrayed how controversial Groupon’s ads are.
After watching the commercial, I believe the company did a good job at advertising their company. Groupon's use of pathos captured the audiences through the emotional appeal of the troubles in Tibet, and then switches over comical appeal to advertise their company. I agree with the people above who said that this is controversial, but that is the goal of most companies in order get public interest in their product. Controversy creates intrest in the company, which usually results in more profit for the company in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Meghan when she said that most people would not be in favor of Groupon after seeing the commercial. Many people would still be in favor of Groupon since they save people money, and it is easy for most people to look past one bad thing if the company would still help them out.
While looking at the comments on Youtube, there were many commenters who thought the commercial was wrong for Groupon to portray the Tibetan culture in the wrong way and to make fun of it. Other commenters thought the commercial was funny and in no way harmed the Tibetan culture. In addition, while looking at all of the comments, it is evident that there are many rude posts that other commenters disagree with. For example, one commenter states,"LOL you guys are really overreacting to this. It's funny. The plight of the Tibet region is not. But I don't think it's inappropriate for a superbowl joke. I bet if the same joke had been made in a Comedy Central roast...you wouldn't bat an eye." However,the commenter dwn4tg disagrees with this comment by stating"Being a Tibetan, this is pretty offensive. Taking the struggles and oppression of an entire people to push discounted [crap] is ridiculous!! This isn't taken lightly because it isn't light humor. For those who think "we" need to lighten up because it's just a commercial, that's exactly what's wrong with this world!" In reading this comment, I agree that Groupon is making fun of the Tibetans in order to improve their publicity and business. Why would a company need to make fun of a culture in order to improve its business? I wonder if after this commercial was aired, if Groupons publicity did actually grow? In addition, wouldn't the company think by airing this commercial that it would portray America in a negative way? By airing this commercial it gives the impression that Americans are self- centered and only care about saving money, regardless of the effects it has on other countries.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty sad that in order for companies to get publicity, they have to make fun of not only their own culture, but also other people's cultures.
Unlike baran.35, I do agree with Meghan when she states "most people would not be in favor of Groupon after seeing this commercial." Yes, I agree that people like to save money, but after viewing the commercial, most people wouldn't support the cause because of its harsh humor and inadequate facts about Tibet. Knowing that the company is producing false information, who in their right mind would support the company?
After viewing this video, it is easy to see how this video can be offensive. Groupon does a poor job of reaching out to their audience in this video. The first portion of the video puts the audience in a sad mood as the video describes the economy and need for help in Tibet. When the video switches to the restaurant, the audience transfers this bad mood over to Groupon. The audience may apply some of these negative views over to the company of Groupon. Overall, this video has a negative effect on its audience; more people may be pushed away from Groupon because of this video.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with lfs93 about his comment of Americans being self-centered. Most Americans would disapprove of this video because they don't like the way that America is portrayed in the video. Many people may think that they are not self-centered. This video makes it seem that while other countries are suffering, America just wants to benefit from other country's good food, rather than supporting them. This may be another reason why Groupon's audience would be turned off from their company.
During the video we see images of the Tibetan culture. The culture is colorful and seems to look as though the people couldn't be happier. It is concerning that the voice over of Timothy Hutton is contradicting the images we see. Hutton tells us that the people of Tibet are in trouble, although he doesn't really say why. It seems as though the advertisers were trying to be funny, but I find that it makes the identity of Americans look rude and insensitive to the real problems of other countries. The ad might appeal to those Americans who only want to save money, but if people read between the lines the advertisers really sound like they are saying "Even though the Tibet people are having problems, they set the atmosphere and are fine cooks so you should use Groupon to take advantage of the Tibet dining options. You should disregard their hardship so you can save money."
ReplyDeleteI found both Mehgan's and Imartinez' comments enlightening. I agree with both of them that it is even more selfish that the advertisers brought in food items that Tibetans not only do not eat, but they have spiritual reasons for not eating these items, like fish. These facts make me question as to whether the advertisers really think Americans are that dumb. And how could the advertising agency expect to use this method of making people feel stupid and ignorant to buy their product? I can understand being humorous, but I feel Groupon may have gone a little too far.
Many of the posters above me commented on how offensive the video was, and how it portrays Americans to be self centered. Lfs93 brings up an interesting topic here by saying, "As a society in a positive state of existence, we often have trouble in our sincerity toward the difficulties of other nations. As long as we can get want we want, in this case Tibetan food, we don’t see a need to dwell upon distant issues." This video does not portray the opinions of all Americans in anyway. Many of the commentators before talked about how this video makes Americans look selfish and self centered. Well, this video was not created by all Americans, so therefore cannot portray all of our views. If people watch this video and then assume all Americans are like this then they are just ignorant. Secondly, this video was obviously created to inform people of the marvelous deals that can be found using Groupon. In the process of doing this they begin to make a joke out of the trouble that Tibetans are facing. While it is offensive to Tibetans, it brings up the issue to be talked about. Lets be honest, when was the last time you heard anything about Tibet and their cultural problems? I think Groupon has marvelous deals that more people should take advantage of, but maybe they should inform people in a less offensive way.
ReplyDeleteI personally thought the video made good use of the pathos part of rhetoric. By faking an ad for the cultural revitalization of the Tibetan people, the makers of this ad easily captivated the audience's attention, because who doesn't feel some sort of emotion about worldly issues? Also, I don't think the advertisement was very offensive, but again effective advertising. They used humor to get their company's name instilled into the viewers' memories, obviously rather effectively. I totally disagree with what seemingly everyone else has said about being "selfish americans". I haven't heard anything about the Tibetan culture being endangered or anything of that nature. If it is indeed true that the Tibetan culture is dying out, then I suppose the makers of the ad should be put to shame. Otherwise, more power to the advertisers for being so effective in getting their name out there.
ReplyDeleteContrary to most of these other posts, I believe that this video was well thought out after much consideration. The Tibetan culture is in jeopardy because of the Chinese government. In a way, Groupon is getting the word out to many Americans and making them more aware of the harsh situations that Tibetans face today. They made this commercial comical by the irony of considering fish curry as a Traditional Tibetan food. It is not a traditional Tibetan dish; it actually goes against some of their religious views. This is their way of proving that their culture really is dying out. If you can't find Tibetan food at a Himalayan restaurant in an international city, then the odds are you'll really only find it in it's country of origin. I feel like this was the comical intention of Groupon. I think that this advertisement would be most offensive to the Chinese, since most of Tibet's problems are blamed/caused on them. I have to agree with Sam when he said, "...this video was obviously created to inform people of the marvelous deals that can be found using Groupon." The final point of this video was to prove that Groupon provides great deals, they just sold this in an interesting way. It is true that most people will find this controversial because they are using Tibetan's strife to sell meal coupons. That is what I thought at first too, but after watching more videos about the commercial and doing some research, I believe that Groupon did an okay job. They have no chance of ever really making a deal with the Chinese, but then again why would they want to eat (most likely) Americanized "Tibetan" cuisine?
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Alex about how this commercial raised a lot of awareness on the issues in Tibet. I remember seeing this commercial and being shocked when the commercial flipped to a groupon ad, but I also remember reading several articles that stated that this commercial raised awareness on the issue and that Tibetan leadership were actually happy with this commercial. Also, groupon posted this http://www.groupon.com/blog/cities/groupon-super-bowl-ads/ about their commercial. This article states that they grew out of a charity organization and this commercial was poking fun at themselves to an extent and that some proceeds were even going to help Tibetan relief
ReplyDeleteFinally, as others have already stated this was a great commercial, it had people saying "have you seen that groupon commercial" which is exactly what an ad campaign wants.
I believe that this commercial was actually somewhat offensive. I think that if they were going to go with a humorous approach to a commercial, starting it with talking about how a culture is in trouble is probably not the best idea. The commercial in general was very insensitive toward the Tibetan culture, and I would not be surprised if the makers of the commercial got into trouble. The humorous approach was trying to start the video by making it sound like they were raising awareness for the issues of the Tibetan culture, and then changing the subject and bringing up how good their food was and advertising for coupons to buy their food at lower prices.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryan Little that the video was offensive toward the Tibetan culture and tasteless. It probably should not have been aired. Also, when I first watched the video I had a similar reaction. I first felt bad for the Tibetan people, then after being caught off guard by the sudden change, found it to be somewhat humorous. At the end though, I still agree that it turned out to be very offensive and should not have been aired.
In the beginning of this commercial, the intent is for the viewer to be drawn in both on pathos for the concern of the Tibetan culture and its inevitable demise, and visually through the vast scenery of the Tibetan mountains. In the midst of the awareness speech Hutton was giving, he switches to talking about the restaurant for the purpose of comedy. After the punch line, Hutton gives information about the website regarding a deal he and 200 of his friends had got which allowed them to eat at the restaurant at half price. The intent of this section of the commercial is to flaunt the product and show why it is such a good idea to use the website, where as the joke at the beginning was to draw the viewer in so they would listen to the latter section.
ReplyDeleteIn response to almost all who posted, this is not a project for judging the manner in which the information is presented. Though it may be offensive, tasteless, and whatever else you subjectively deem it, the objective of the post is to analyze the material given and point out why they decided to say what they said or what the point behind their actions were on a much more objective scale.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that this commercial did a very good job of advertising their product. I see the deals that Groupon offer and the struggles of the Tibetan people as somewhat unrelated topics. I did not really find the commercial as offensive. The the beginning of the commercial and the end of the commercial just did not seem to support each other very well. I do agree with reeves.193 on the statement that the beginning of the commercial was an attempt to draw the viewer in with pathos before the commercial turned toward an attempt to sell a product. I don't think that this advertisement provided a good argument for participating in their group deals online. However, by having their commercial air with the Super Bowl, millions of people saw the commercial, which increases the probability of people checking out the website. I know that I had never heard of this company until I saw the commercial. The company may not have provided a relevant argument to participate in their deals, but they did pick a good time to air the commercial in order to maximize the number of people that saw it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through many of the comments posted on YouTube in response to this video, I believe this commercial had no effect on those with strong values on the issues of Tibet and just minorities in general. The ad was clearly attempting to get more people to use Groupon with it's "joke" about the Tibet people and how America can get their good food for cheap. Although the low prices that Groupon offers may be enticing to the general public, stating the low cost of the good food was not enough to sway people into using Groupon according to the many people that were offended. @AJSpartan117 commented, "Well, everyone who hated it boycotted it, so its their loss. I know ill never use groupon again after this." And @ Jamesonknott further emphasized that this commercial did not do a good job in appealing to the general American public like it was trying to, "if you are not hearing about the genocide in Tibet since the 1950s then you are just not paying attention, simple as that. Hutton could have done a number of positive things with this material to sell Groupon which could have been mutually beneficial, but he chose to trivialize a decades-long Holocaust. And Hutton didn't even get the food right, fishing is against Tibetan culture." Even though America does value good deals on food and other items, as evidence of these comments shows, the general public does not value them more than the well-being of other struggling cultures. Dan's opening comment on his post about how this commercial is slightly offensive further proves that this commercial was unable to effectively accomplish it's goal of gaining more Groupon users. From what I can see, the values of the general public were not swayed by this commercial in any way and therefore Groupon was not successful in making an ad to gain more customers like they had hoped.
ReplyDeleteWhen i first saw this commercial i was confused about what it was advertising. It started out by showing the Himalayas and the culture of Tibet thus attempting to draw the audience into the commercial by making them wonder what it was about. The commercial then quickly changed to a man sitting in a restaurant, being served food from tibet, and explaining how he got it cheaper since he is a Groupon user. Overall, this commercial did a poor job at advertising their product to the audience due it not being memorable and appealing to the audience.
ReplyDeleteIn response to what many people said about it being offensive i agree with them. It takes a culture such as Tibet and degrades them by saying since we are Americans their food is not worth as much to us and we should get it for a cheaper price. Since so many people found this commercial it did a better job at steering people away from Groupon than drawing them in.