Donald Trump's politics push Groupon away
After an online petition was launched urging a boycott of companies that advertised with NBC's Celebrity Apprentice in order to protest Donald Trump's recent political statements, Groupon announced yesterday that they would not place ads on the show's website in the future so as to "[avoid] intentionally upsetting a segment of our customers."
Groupon was careful to explain that it "had never been a sponsor of The Apprentice on TV or on the web," according to a post on their blog. "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."
Groupon's spokesperson Julie Mossner tells EW, "We contacted the ad provider and requested that the Apprentice homepage be omitted from the list of places our ads appear. We are continuing to run ads planned for NBC.com."
NBC officials and representatives for the Celebrity Apprentice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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