I guess the only good news is the statements in poor taste are not limited to food allergies!

Quote from: my3guys on October 19, 2011, 09:55:43 AM
Interesting:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/the-missed-red-flags-on-groupon/?src=tp

Clearly, this "irreverent" streak at Groupon comes from the top:  "We're almost on the other side, and the negativity leaves us well positioned to exceed expectations with an I.P.O. baby that, having seen the ultrasound, I can promise you is not one of those uglies."

That's a nice corporate culture the CEO is cultivating.

Interesting:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/the-missed-red-flags-on-groupon/?src=tp

Well, statistically, they no doubt will.  (Joel Stein comes to mind immediately.)


<sigh>


It's just a terrible waste that shame doesn't actually obligate anyone to offer up a public apology or retraction of some kind under certain conditions.   

I don't often do this but I can't help myself. I hope some of those groupon a$$es develop their very own LTFA.

Seriously...what a**hats.

Guess We Have Our Answer from Groupon

Terri Mauro is so wonderful!! I'm such a fan.

Here's what she said in her About.com Special Needs blog:

QuoteGuess We Have Our Answer from Groupon
By Terri Mauro, About.com Guide   October 13, 2011


Last week I wrote about a couple of essays on the Groupon site that made light of food allergies -- one advising kids to learn about their bullies' allergies and another suggesting they put up a "no peanut allergies" sign on their treehouse. Parents of kids with food allergies complained on Groupon's site and in a Facebook group urging the company to rethink its hurtful words.

And now, as reader Sharon has pointed out to me, another smug little article has gone up: "The Groupon Guide to Apologizing." It's written in the same sort of self-satisfied snarky tone as the others, not really funny so much as delighting in its incorrectness. And then we come to the last line, under the subheading "Atone": "Punish yourself by spending a day using only analog time tellers or depriving your body of satisfying nut products."

Well.

There will be many who say that it's oversensitive to believe that Groupon is responding here to readers who protested to its other essays on behalf of kids with peanut allergies. And that's fine. I am oversensitive. You bet I am. I'm oversensitive because people keep whopping kids with special needs with a two-by-four and then saying, "Oh, stop complaining. It's funny. Lighten up. What, can't you whop anybody with a two-by-four anymore? Sheesh!"

For once, you know what? I'd like us to have the two-by-four.

I don't know how many parents of children with food allergies belong to Groupon. I don't know how many in the extended family of people who don't care for disability concerns being openly mocked are members. Perhaps the membership of Groupon is entirely made up of the kind of people who write nasty comments on posts about peanut bans. In which case, Groupon is playing to its audience, and good for them.

But if you're not one of those people, and you are a Groupon member, it may be time to think about not being one. If you are not a Groupon member but regularly patronize businesses that do business with Groupon, it may be time to let them know where you will not be spending your money. Since our words don't seem to be having much of an impact, maybe our dollars will.

Does that make me a humorless, overreacting, politically correct censor? If so, I'll take Groupon's advice and hang that in my Badnesses Cabinet. With pride. How 'bout you?

^I don't think it's a new one although it is another one.

Now they have another one!  http://www.groupon.com/groupon_says/groupon-says-73874084

They really, truly need a professional copywriter. Personally, I didn't find it offensive but it really is some awful copy. Whoever is writing repeatedly about food allergies needs to work out whatever hangup he or she has about it and move on. For their sake.

I'll do that Maeve.  And I love Terri Mauro. Folks here will recognize the Expect Respect Manifesto.  She is @mamatude on Twitter.  And I've communicated with her on work-related matters. She's great. 

Thank you both so much for taking this on.

How very sad that anyone would think that the exclusion of children would be funny.




Even more disappointing that the organization as a whole, apparently, feels that it isn't (at a minimum) in very poor taste.

There are ways of mentioning disability and including it, even in a lighthearted or humorous way, which are not EXCLUSIONARY or demeaning.


How unfortunate that Groupon doesn't seem to understand that distinction.

McC,
Thanks for taking that stand.  It's not the first time that Groupon has made fun of people with allergies.  My DH sent me this link this morning:
http://www.groupon.com/groupon_says/groupon-says-73874084

Here's a story from about.com about these Groupon pages:
http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2011/10/07/groupon-finds-food-allergies-funny.htm

BTW, Ted Leonsis, who was recently interviewed in Allergic Living is a member of Groupon's board of directors.  My DH has already tweeted him about this issue; perhaps, we can all tweet Leonsis about the issue.

Do not quote:
This is the email I sent a group at work proposing not to use Groupon, including our CEO, from whom I got a message in agreement. 


Well, I had some cool links to show the group about other races using Groupon and was prepared to share that what seems to be the tipping point for success is offering about 50% off.  And I was prepared to say that we might not net on this deal if we do it before the t-shirt deadline, but if we think of it in terms of acquisition (which I never expect to net on), it might be a cool thing to try. 

I had called Groupon yesterday to determine our best strategy and to see if Groupon's take on this would be cost prohibitive to us (there aren't any upfront costs, but they take a percentage of each sale), but the salesperson called me back as I was heading out.  I asked him to call me back this morning at 10:00 am.

However, last night on Facebook I saw a Groupon page that troubled me.  Apparently Groupon has a blog-like section that is intended to be irreverent, satirical and funny, "Groupon Says." They're found at the bottom of the Featured Deal as you can see here:  http://www.groupon.com/<our city>/ But what I saw was in very poor taste and lacked good judgment. Worse, it promotes exclusion and bullying, even if they're trying to be funny about it.

And I told the salesperson this morning that I cannot in good conscience do business with his company.

http://www.groupon.com/groupon_says/groupon-says-47268927

If you can't follow the link, I've put a screenshot of the post below.

You might think this is harmless, but I've seen too many "let natural selection take its course with these kids" reader comments from *adults* when news stories about life threatening food allergies appear online.  There are folks in our society who don't need encouragement to exclude others.  If Groupon had used "no one with a disability allowed" (a life threatening food allergy is a hidden disability according to the ADA), the absurdity of this sentence might have been understood.  Or, how about "no Aspies (referring to someone with Asperger's) allowed"?  Right—absurd.

In my own situation, my child has been made to sit in the hallway at school more than once when a mom brought in cupcakes for (almost) everyone while the rest of the class had a party in the classroom—because it was somehow okay to exclude the kid with a peanut allergy and because having junk food was somehow more important than teaching children about inclusion.   Before I wised up, he was excluded from instructional events at school.  He's been kept out of a number of "tree houses" over the last 13 years.  It's not funny to me. 

As an organization that serves people with disabilities, I cannot recommend we use this company.  Groupon as of yet seems unrepentant, and the salesperson I talked with laughed.  After saying he thought it wasn't a big deal, he eventually admitted it was insensitive. 

I think <our event> will be huge without it.  We can get more exposure with a Facebook ad and not lose the money from discounts.  I don't think we should use Groupon this year.

The whole thing seems in bad taste.  "your lieing mother" "why go up a tree when you can go down a well and get famous".

I need a pukey emoticon.