Ah, publicity stunts. Some of the best play on a sense of humor to gain attention from a larger audience, usually to sell more products or create a reputation for a company. Some of the worst flirt with poor taste and turn off potential customers.
Groupon, the hugely successful coupon company, launched its own spin on a humorous publicity stunt on Wednesday.
Groupon provides mass coupons to cities in the United States. Each day, the deal changes. Yesterday the deal featured a half-off coupon at Limon Peruvian restaurant on Blackstone, and a few days ago the site offered cheap tickets to San Jose State football games””including their game versus Fresno State. These deals, named after the site, are called “Groupons.”
According to Andrew Mason, the founder, fans of his site raised one objection: What about the children? He says fans were complaining that the Groupon company took no responsibility for children conceived on a date where a couple used a Groupon deal.
On Wednesday, Mason responded to this objection with a site called Grouspawn. It’s a program that awards two $60,000 college scholarships each year to babies conceived by couples who used a Groupon deal on their first date. Mason claims that the company “wanted to make sure that Groupon babies were the smartest babies out there.”
To aid potential “spawners,” as Grouspawn calls them, in their dating pursuits, they provide a rudimentary dating service to match up Grouspawn users.
In order for a baby to qualify for a scholarship, the parents must prove that on their first date they used a Groupon. Among various stipulations on the site, Grouspawn states “Groupon WILL dispatch our team of hard-nosed paternity investigators to dig up your past. The first requirement is that you and your co-spawner used a Groupon on your first date.”
As you’ve probably guessed, Grouspawn is apparently Mason’s idea of a joke.
I use the word “apparently” because there’s no solid indication that Grouspawn isn’t real. But most reports call it a publicity stunt.
Mason is known for his pranks and his vivid sense of humor. Groupon’s e-mail alerts showcase the company’s quirky style, which often use off-the-wall humor to promote their products.
So far, it seems his stunt has worked. Bloggers from The Wall Street Journal, BBC, The LA Times, Forbes and Time have jumped on this story, reporting the humorous hoax and furthering Mason’s goal of provocative publicity.
There remains a lingering question, though””with no real indication on the Grouspawn site of the nature of the hoax, could the seemingly innocent joke run afoul?
Even if no spawners are harmed, Grouspawn’s initiative says something about the way our culture views babies. At the obvious level of humor, we can all get a laugh. But on a deeper, more thoughtful level, what is Grouspawn saying? “Your little accident could make you rich if you play by our Grouspawn rules! Ha ha ha, so funny!” Is this the subtext Groupon really wants to espouse?
To be fair, the site does provide a disclaimer against having children just to claim the Grouspawn prize and discourages those that win against using the money for purposes other than the child’s education, stating that “it would be wrong.”
No matter the outcome, the bizarre stunt provides a form of commentary on our culture’s values and plenty of fodder for deeper examination. Hopefully it doesn’t all backfire in Groupon’s face.