Groupon, Tibet, and You

by Scott on Feb.11, 2011, under Facebook, Geekhood, Just Sayin', Show & Tell, Social Media

While the mind is untamed it can only cause trouble. If anger, greed or arrogance spring up they will take over the situation.less than a minute ago via webDalai Lama
DalaiLama

We recognize that a multi-billion dollar corporation decided to support the Tibetan people’s struggle and help The Tibet Fund raise urgently needed funds. The Superbowl broadcast drew unprecedented attention to the issue of Tibet at a critical time in the history of the cause. Tibetans have spent 50 years in exile from their homeland. While they have succeeded in establishing a democratic system of government and creating a settlement system to care for the refugees, continuing poverty is taking its toll on the communities in India and Nepal.

-The Tibet Fund
Who is now not getting thousands of people ushered to their site thanks to the “offended”

Global Search Frequency For Help Tibet (and derivatives)

Frequency for The Tibet Fund

These graphs both show the Global interest in Tibet was near an all time low, and their commercial made an immediate impact in generating interest. This isn’t even counting the exponential amount of donations Groupon (realistically) brought The Tibet Fund. By making you angry over the “Bait & Switch” Groupon played on your emotions (while perhaps illustrating your own materialistic gullibility and selfishness), they achieved more for Tibet than if that commercial never had a comical twist. They took the risk of offending the (very) small margin of people who did actively care about helping Tibet because if you look at the numbers above that is less than .1% of anyone watching the Superbowl. If you have since found yourself inspired to support Tibet, you have some very clever marketing to thank for that, but the numbers simply aren’t there to back up the amount of people claiming to be offended by this commercial. Actions speak louder than words, and being pro-Tibet does not mean that you have actually helped it. It was an unconventional call to arms, in a very competitive time slot, and it worked. They also forced the US’s largest Television audience ever to think about helping Tibet. What a bunch of assholes.

Let's just call that Game Point

Were we victims of a vocal minority?

As a timeless defender of risqué humor and a connoisseur of satire, I inevitably debated my friends as to why some people misunderstanding the commercial did not make it inherently tasteless. I was accused of being cynical, but rather I was looking at it rationally. Since no one was really helping Tibet, I don’t see how anyone can claim offense. In my eyes, the only people who could take offense were the people of Tibet.

So what is the typical Never-Helped-Tibet Offended Person in a tiff over:

Making fun of the self-centered, celebrity worshiping, consumerist culture that dominates our media

Pointing out the fact that you, as the typical American, don’t actually care enough to help

You have been told you should be offended, and went with it

I hope those extreme few who actually did help Tibet before this campaign recognize that all Groupon was doing were the same reverse psychology tricks parents play on 4 year olds. They provided the motivation to make those who would help actually do so. With the recession and the endless back-to-back world disasters we have had since the Dalai Lama pleaded help for Tibet in 2008 (the major spike on the interest graphs), people have been giving a lot less to charity. All these charities were quite grateful for the attention Groupon brought their causes, each of their sites had nothing but gratitude. If you went to any of those causes sites, you would know this already.

RageBook:

Fill a room with Chimps and Laptops and they'll comment on FB posts without reading them all day

Top Facebook Responses to the SuperBowl Night Post (by Likes):

disclaimer: I personally liked 2 of these

Tweet Sentiment

Twitter Sentiment 2/5-2/11

Groupon, you got tricked into thinking that those Ads hurt you, let them stay up (and keep people thinking)

Key Mistakes

URL, URL, URL. Simply having the campaign’s microsite on the Ad would have averted this whole calamity. In reality, Groupon Was giving you $15 in Groupon credit if you donated to any of these causes (they were quick on Social Media to push out this). Emotions are contagious, and a majority of people did not know that the joke was indeed on them (feigning not caring about the causes)

You wasted Cuba Gooding Jr. on Green Peace. I understand the decision (many people dislike Green Peace because they are human SPAM, and ineffective), but Cuba’s power of likability should have been used to counter balance the human factor The Tibet Fund brought with it’s cause. Cuba was your most powerful asset, and could have joked about killing kittens without upsetting people (because Cuba clearly would never do that).

I might be more versed in manipulating emotions to influence behavior, and thus more resistant than some, but if you still find your teeth gritted in rage, here’s a handy resource for your sympathy pains. How to control anger
(Hint: number 4).

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:analytics, Groupon, justsayin, Tibet

http://www.briannevillano.com/ BrianneVillano

Oy. You know I would never be upset that someone brought attention to a situation or cause that so clearly deserves recognition. My main issue was that a) Groupon overestimated the intelligence of this sad, ignorant, beautiful country and b) You were insistent that “no one” cared about any of the causes before seeing those commercials. Meanwhile I’ve been obsessed with rain forests since I was eleven and even wrote letters to the editor on various occasions. (Ironically enough, Green Peace contacted me when I was a kid and gave me membership after I was in the paper for my letters.)

This country is getting dumber and dumber, and more shallow and neurotic. Maybe tasteless was the wrong word. Perhaps over-their-heads or cerebral or any number of words would have been better.
http://www.scotttempleman.com/ Scott Templeman

When I say “no one” what I actually mean is a statistically insignificant amount of people compared to the mob, I was careful to not criticize those that were actually helping before. Our culture has been conditioned through government & consumerism to expect charity be done for them. I wouldn’t say this country is dumber as much as social media giving people possibly the largest echo chamber in history. If 1% of those exposed to the ad were honestly furious, that’s 1.1 million people. Twitter & Facebook distort our perceptions of popular opinion because we tend to connect with people we agree with (and avoid those with contrary opinions). The media smelled sensationalist blood and ran with it (they may have also had a slightly wounded ego from the campaign).

This certainly wasn’t directed at you, but our discussion inspired me to dig all this up )