Daily deals site Groupon has dropped advertisements from the website for Trump's show The Apprentice after the online community began a protest petitioning the site to do so.
Groupon responded in a blog post, denying that it had sponsored Trump, and noting that it would pull ads from the website.
"Here’s the thing: Groupon has never been a sponsor of The Apprentice on TV or on the web. We invest heavily in online advertising through networks that place ads on a rolling basis, meaning that we know one will appear on NBC.com but not specifically which page," they wrote.
Groupon also explained its reasoning for pulling the ads by lumping Trump in with topics that are known to be politically divisive.
"Enough consumers have contacted us to warrant ensuring that we don’t place ads on the Apprentice homepage in the future," it wrote. "It’s the same reason we don’t run deals on guns or abortion…this isn’t a political statement, it’s avoiding intentionally upsetting a segment of our customers."
The petition, which now proclaims its success, read:
Dear @Groupon — Donald Trump’s recent racist attacks against our president are blatant and grotesque. We ask you to pull your advertising support from @ApprenticeNBC in protest and ask NBC to fire Donald Trump now. Given the recent blowup over your Super Bowl commercials, you are a company that understands better than most how the perception of disrespect and insensitivity can impact your brand. If you do not show yourself to be a company that stands for basic civility and stands against hateful and hurtful rhetoric, I will no longer use your daily deal service.
A Groupon rep proceeded to tweet heatedly at Think Progress, saying "Make it clear that we NEVER sponsored the Apprentice, not that we’re “stopping.” I demand accountability on your end, too" and "You have a responsibility to inform people thoroughly on what they’re protesting, and you haven’t done that."
Despite the pull, Adweek found that Groupon is still running a deal on its Philadelphia and North Jersey sites offering discounts at Trump’s casino in Atlantic City, meaning the site is still sending money his way.
Read on for Groupon's full statement:
You know when you hear some juicy gossip about Sarah dating Peter, and it spreads around the office, and suddenly Sarah’s secretly married to Peter who’s cheating on his taxes so that he can pay for magician school? That happened to us today.Someone online began a petition to boycott Groupon because they believed we were a sponsor of the Apprentice, a show that is in the middle of some political criticism at the moment.
Then, just like that, it was announced we were pulling our sponsorship and boycotting the Apprentice and NBC. Pulling a fake sponsorship that didn’t exist….
Here’s the thing: Groupon has never been a sponsor of The Apprentice on TV or on the web. We invest heavily in online advertising through networks that place ads on a rolling basis, meaning that we know one will appear on NBC.com but not specifically which page. We know that some advertising appeared on the Apprentice home page a few weeks ago.
Enough consumers have contacted us to warrant ensuring that we don’t place ads on the Apprentice homepage in the future. It’s the same reason we don’t run deals on guns or abortion…this isn’t a political statement, it’s avoiding intentionally upsetting a segment of our customers.
Thanks for allowing us to clear this up. Maybe we can make this blog post go viral, too.