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Feb. 8th, 2011 10:37 amSo. Groupon and Living Social are "group coupon" websites. You sign up to get mailings, and every day they send out a small handful of deals. If enough people buy into the deal, it goes live, and you get your coupon. I've talked about Groupon before.
Anyway, Groupon and Living Social went HEAD TO HEAD OMG in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl (I totally followed this, too, with odd fascination). Living Social apparently released an Amazon.com coupon, and Groupon retaliated by releasing a Barnes & Noble coupon with a special dedicated mailing even. (Did I buy the B&N Groupon? Yes I did. Magnetic fridge poetry shall finally be mine.)
Both were going to be running ad campaigns during the Super Bowl, some of the most expensive advertising time in the world. Groupon got slots actually during the game itself; Living Social got pre-and-post-game slots.
( Racism, transphobia, gender politics, and communal coupons. Jesus H. Christ. )
Look, honestly, I don't know what the fuck to make of a lot of this. I'm a cis hetero white male. I'm talking about this because I have a platform most people don't have, but I have less than a leg to stand on when it comes to calling out privilege, which makes it actually quite hard for me to debate this kind of thing. And anyone arguing with me is just arguing with me, but when I make a post like this I'm potentially arguing with a couple hundred people all at once. So you're going to have to answer each other or think it through yourselves in this case. All I can do is just...say what I saw and what I've heard and talked about, and present this as a bizarre case study in two direct competitors and the ads they put out.
So -- I guess, remember when you talk about the super bowl ads and when you see any ads to think critically about them. I know a lot of you do; I have evidence from past posts. But it never hurts to hear again.
Please keep it civil and respectful in comments. I'm already likely going to get savaged in a couple of places for this and I genuinely do not need you guys at each others' throats.
Anyway, Groupon and Living Social went HEAD TO HEAD OMG in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl (I totally followed this, too, with odd fascination). Living Social apparently released an Amazon.com coupon, and Groupon retaliated by releasing a Barnes & Noble coupon with a special dedicated mailing even. (Did I buy the B&N Groupon? Yes I did. Magnetic fridge poetry shall finally be mine.)
Both were going to be running ad campaigns during the Super Bowl, some of the most expensive advertising time in the world. Groupon got slots actually during the game itself; Living Social got pre-and-post-game slots.
( Racism, transphobia, gender politics, and communal coupons. Jesus H. Christ. )
Look, honestly, I don't know what the fuck to make of a lot of this. I'm a cis hetero white male. I'm talking about this because I have a platform most people don't have, but I have less than a leg to stand on when it comes to calling out privilege, which makes it actually quite hard for me to debate this kind of thing. And anyone arguing with me is just arguing with me, but when I make a post like this I'm potentially arguing with a couple hundred people all at once. So you're going to have to answer each other or think it through yourselves in this case. All I can do is just...say what I saw and what I've heard and talked about, and present this as a bizarre case study in two direct competitors and the ads they put out.
So -- I guess, remember when you talk about the super bowl ads and when you see any ads to think critically about them. I know a lot of you do; I have evidence from past posts. But it never hurts to hear again.
Please keep it civil and respectful in comments. I'm already likely going to get savaged in a couple of places for this and I genuinely do not need you guys at each others' throats.
