Tag: Brand Image

The most controversial Super Bowl Ad yet?

February 11, 2011

This year’s Superbowl Ad XLV by Groupon is the most controversial ad yet. The company’s CEO Andrew Mason has apologized if he has offended anyone. This commercial starred actor Timothy Hutton where he first begins to talk about the seriousness going on in Tibet and then begins comically bragging about a fish curry dish you can get for cheaper using your Groupon coupons. They claim that the ad quickly went from charitable to consumerist. They also made no mention of the charity drive or the website in the commercial.

Mason acknowledges that the portrayal of the meaning behind the campaign was not clear and says “as many of you have pointed out, if an ad requires an explanation that means it didn’t work out.” They feel as there brand has always been quirky, they certainly were not trying to portray the image of Groupon to be of controversy.

Moments after the commercial aired blogs and tweets were posted on the negative aspects on the ad. Having spent millions of dollars on everything that goes into the ad you would think they had their humor dialed in. With these bad decisions and upsetting many viewers and human rights groups, Groupon faces many challenges in the road ahead. Many feel as this Ad had the most negative reaction in social media than any other game time advertisement.

It will be interesting to see how Groupon handles this negativity and how it effects their brand.

-Lindsey Baggett, Drew Mayer, Micaela Fouhy, Will Cosden, Brianna Ellen Golden

Price Tag on a Super Bowl Ticket? Not for these fans.

February 10, 2011

It seems fans whose plans were altered by seating issues at this years Super Bowl have filed a lawsuit against the NFL. Go figure. The lawsuit also targets specifically the Dallas Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones and alleges a breach of contract, fraud, and deceptive sales practices. The massive group of fans, as many as a thousand people, are pushing for a collective gain up to $5 million from the NFL. While some of these fans pushing for the lawsuit are legit (400 fans did not even get a seat for the game), others seem to be coming off as a bit forced such as season-ticket holders who weren’t aware that they would be in “temporary seats”.

Perhaps the NFL’s biggest problem stemmed from an inadequate offer that would have given the displaced fans $2,400 and even a ticket to next year’s Super Bowl, airfare and hotel included. But clearly this just is not good enough for these fans who felt gipped out of their paid-for seats. Apparently the NFL should have made these fans an offer they couldn’t refuse, at least up front, and now they will really have to pay for it. Clearly, the NFL cannot afford to get into a legal battle with these angry fans as it would lead to nothing more than a public relations disaster and a huge blow to the brand. It is no secret now that the league is to blame for the seating fiasco. So now in order to evade future damage to sales efforts and brand integrity and credibility, the NFL needs to do whatever it now takes to keep its faithful customers.

Apparently there is no price tag on a Super Bowl ticket for these fans and they show no signs of dropping the issue. It seems at this point, the main hope for the NFL is that this story gets out of the media as fast as possible, and without further damage to the brand and future marketing and sales efforts and profits.

-Eric Holtzman, Chad Graves, Ryan Kelley, Maxann Keller, Katelyn Truss