The average television commercial last thirty
seconds. Within those thirty seconds, a commercial can make you feel happy,
sad, encouraged and so much more. Whatever emotion they're targeting, the
ending goal of almost every commercial is to persuade you to use their product.
However sometimes, these companies take the idea of persuading you too far and
in the end have the opposite effect of what they planned. By violating
persuasive ethics, companies can disrespect or offend their viewers, making
them not want to use their product at all. An example of this violation was in
2011 when Groupon aired a commercial during the Super Bowl trying to get
viewers to join their online coupon service.
When the commercial first starts, the line "The
people of Tibet are in trouble" is said by Timothy Hutton, an American
actor and director. He then goes on to show images of the poor children in
Tibet and he describes how the Tibetan culture is in jeopardy. All of a sudden
the commercial switches directions and Hutton states that "They still whip
up an amazing fish curry". Stating that if you had Groupon you could get
thirty dollars of Tibetan food for just fifteen dollars. In my opinion, this is
a violation of persuasive ethics and is highly disrespectful to the people of
Tibet.
This video was highly controversial and a lot of
people felt exactly the same way I felt after I watched it. In an NPR
interview, Louisa Lim states that "Tibet supporters say it trivializes the
suffering and oppression of Tibetans under Chinese rule". They
offended the Tibetan culture and made it seem like their suffering didn't matter
and there was nothing anyone could do to help. What was the need to bring in
the poor suffering children and beautiful views of the country? What point was
Groupon trying to get at? Their service had nothing to do with helping the
people of Tibet.
Groupon then tried to defend its commercial
by saying that their concept while making the commercial was to show that
groups of people can come together to help a cause. Were they talking about the
cause of saving themselves money with their service? Because nothing was said
about how people could help the culture of Tibet.
In the end, this commercial didn’t achieve its
intended purpose. Yes it did receive a lot of attention in the media due to how
controversial it was but not the right kind of intention. People looked down
upon Groupon for making such an offensive commercial and stopped using their
service. Groupon not only violated persuasive ethics but offended a culture.
Sources:
Groupon's 'Tibet' Super Bowl Ad: Harmless
Fun Or Offensive? (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2015.
