Groupon’s greatest PR gaffes, blunders, and missteps
The young company fired founder and CEO Andrew Mason on Thursday after disastrous quarterly earnings. PR Daily explores some of Groupon’s famous PR crises—large and small.
It seemed as if the company’s CEO and founder, Andrew Mason, could do no wrong. That was in December 2010, and some people felt like spurning Google might be a wise move.
Fast forward a couple years and my, how silly that all seems.
Yesterday, Groupon’s stock took a 25 percent tumble after a grim quarterly earnings report. Before the day was over, the Groupon board had ousted Mason, who penned one of the most memorable departing letters of all time. It starts like this:
“After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding—I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention.”
Is that a dig on his family?
Anyway, Mason leaves us with some distinct memories—particularly in the PR gaffe category. For a young company, it has sure experienced a number of crises: some large (its disastrous Super Bowl ad), others more amusing (a missing comma).
Here are a few of our favorite PR blunders over the last several years:
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