Super Bowl Ads: Offensive, Funny Or Just Boring?

In between Green Bay's win and the Black Eyed Peas' embarrassing halftime show, the world's companies came to the Super Bowl to hock their wares. And according to USA Today, everyone thought that Doritos ad where the pug jumps into the clear glass door was hilarious. Volkswagen and Bud Light had some popular spots too, but last night controversy was spelled G-R-O-U-P-O-N.

In one of their spots last night, Timothy Hutton spoke about how Tibet's culture is in "jeopardy," but thanks to Groupon he can still get 50% his fish curry at a Tibetan restaurant in Chicago. They pretty much killed their presence in China and offended plenty of Americans. As Rohit Bhargava said, "The strategy behind their campaign is explained well by founder Andrew Mason on the Groupon Blog ... however without the context of the thinking behind the ad, their 30 second spot in isolation came off as offensive, amateurish and insensitive." To their credit, Groupon has set up a website to donate to charities associated with their "controversial" ads, like Greenpeace, Tibet Fund and Rainforest Action Network.

Living Social's ad that tracked a man from lumberjack to cross-dresser wasn't exactly well received either. Aric Zion wrote on Twitter, "Living Social: 1. Groupon 0 for their ad #brandbowl in poor taste. 4 a social company, they're not being very socially responsible.." But according to some, Living Social's spot was the reason Groupon even had a Super Bowl ad in the first place. Meanwhile, were surprised to see Eminem make another appearance in that Brisk tea ad. Or really, that Brisk tea still existed.