Groupon Suggests Kids Build a Fort, but "No Peanut Allergies Allowed"
Popular deals site Groupon recently posted a short paragraph under their "Groupon Says" section of their website that elicited quite a response from parents, which is a huge (or very near total) portion of their customer base. In the section they suggest to kids how to build the ultimate tree house. However, the author of the post (probably someone in the marketing department) took careful pains to piss off a lot of people. Chances are, it was just a terrible joke that should have been proofread out, but it wasn't and as of now, Groupon has not apologized for the statement. In this case, the "Groupon Effect" is "stupid."
This is what the "The Groupon Kidz Quorner: Your Ultimate Tree House" section explains to kids (taken directly from the site word for word:)
Hey, kids who have unlocked the awesome secret of reading! Here's your guide to building the ultimate tree house, tree fort, or awkward tree duplex you share with your former best friend who changed during summer camp. Let's get started!
- Find a tree in the backyard that can support your ambitious plans and the growth spurt your lying mother insists is coming "any day now."
- A well-armed tree fort needs plenty of ammunition. Fill your tin buckets with as many collected chestnuts, pine cones, dog bones, unseasonal snowballs, and dad tools as you can find lying around.
- A good fort layout is still available in the 1952 Dennis The Menace story arc entitled A Few Good Menace, where noted terrible boy Dennis the Menace starts a counterfeit money ring.
- Ditch that outdated "No girls allowed" sign in favor of the modern "No peanut allergies allowed."
- Why go up into a tree, when you could go down into a well and become a TV star?!
So basically, the author of that Groupon article pretty much encouraged readers (kids) to exclude those with peanut allergies. What's next? Diabetics? While this isn't some sort of racist dig, it's almost worse. Kids with peanut allergies have something that is life threatening. This is something that can cause death and while I'm not usually one to get outraged at a company for an editorial error such as this, I do have a child with peanut allergies. So yeah, I make a lot of terrible jokes on Twitter, but that's not what Groupon does. They run a respectable company that has a responsibility to the community they serve. That's how I justify any hypocrisy I might exhibit in this situation. Because there is a benefit of the doubt situation.
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