In 2011, Groupon decided to make its foray into televised advertising on the biggest stage possible. Their idea was to have celebrities start things off with what looked like a PSA for various important causes, but then abruptly switch into an endorsement of people coming together to help themselves instead

It was risky advertising territory to say the least. And when actor Timothy Hutton (the main guy from Leverage) did a spot that seemed to make light of the oppressed people of Tibet, people were pretty ticked off

To Groupon's credit, they did set up donation links to every cause that they made fun of in their commercials...although their stock price still seems to have experienced some pretty bad karma before finally rebounding this year



5. Bud Light: Classroom







The first problem with this 2007 ad is the fact that a lesson on ways to ask for and deny beer to others in various, over done accents is being taught inside of a classroom. But any weirdness from that set up is quickly overshadowed by the commercial's content and its pitch man: Carlos Mencia





You would think that it would be an impossibly redundant task to make yourself into an unfunny version of George Lopez. But somehow, Mencia does it.



In this commercial, we find him in his usual comfort zone of joking about various racial stereotypes. Aside from the fact that the ad isn't funny at all, its cringe factor is even worse when you consider the fact that the bit part players are better at being funny than the actual comedian who is playing off of them.

















4. Lifeminders.com

















They start off by telling you that this is "the worst commercial on the Super Bowl," followed by explaining their bizarre business model (sending you streams of emails about things that you might be interested in) and why it's not spam.



All this is being displayed as black text against a yellow background while Chopsticks is played on an out of tune piano by what you have to imagine is a very angry or child or incredibly intelligent cat.



Any inclination you may have had to give the company the benefit of the doubt (and sign up to have them flood your inbox) is quickly washed away by the 30 second assault on your senses that a start up company paid millions of dollars to inflict upon a massive audience. The whole "not an ad" ad technique can work really well if it's done right: Fedex did one of the best ones you'll ever see back in 1998. But in 2000, Lifeminders.com took the premise from an exercise in meta sales pitching to an act of unspeakable pain and suffering.They start off by telling you that this is "the worst commercial on the Super Bowl," followed by explaining their bizarre business model (sending you streams of emails about things that you might be interested in) and why it's not spam.All this is being displayed as black text against a yellow background while Chopsticks is played on an out of tune piano by what you have to imagine is a very angry or child or incredibly intelligent cat.Any inclination you may have had to give the company the benefit of the doubt (and sign up to have them flood your inbox) is quickly washed away by the 30 second assault on your senses that a start up company paid millions of dollars to inflict upon a massive audience.







3. Salesgenie.com: Pandas











Not even the inherent adorableness of pandas could save Salesgenie from themselves (and making the list for a second time). This 2008 ad features a family of cheaply produced cartoon Pandas that use Salesgenie to help them with their bamboo furniture business.





They also exhibit stereotypical Chinese accents and mannerisms, which are portrayed so badly that even Mickey Rooney would have felt uncomfortable watching it.



