08 February,2011 06:58 AM IST | | Agencies
The Super Bowl usually comes and goes without much notice in China.
However, this year, America's famous sporting event took a different turn when a television advertisement featuring Tibetans and a Chicago-area Himalayan restaurant triggered angry comments from Internet users in China.
The ad by Groupon a US-based company that helps online group-buyers get discounts was to generate support for The Tibet Fund, an organisation that aims to preserve Tibetan culture.
During the ad, actor Timothy Hutton appears to be served a meal at Himalayan Restaurant in Chicago.
He delivers the line "The Tibetan people are in trouble. Their culture is in jeopardy." Then in a seemingly sarcastic tone, Hutton adds, "But they still whip up an amazing fish curry!"
Hutton then talks about a 50 per cent discount he and other Groupon users got at a Himalayan restaurant in Chicago.
The joke fell flat with Chinese Internet users, at a time when the venture capital-backed Groupon is aggressively expanding its services and staffing in mainland China.
Tibet has long been a source of consistent domestic and international tension for China, which established control over the region in 1951.
