Groupon has apologized for an ad appearing on its website that used a racial slur to describe the color of some boots being sold.
Like many online publishers, Groupon allows third-party vendors to generate their own ads and then post them directly to the site, which the company blames in this case, but some customers have still called for a boycott of the company, Cosmopolitan magazine reported.
Customers started to complain on Twitter when they found the n-word being used to describe the boots sold on the Groupon website by Kojwa and Margines, among others, Cosmopolitan said.
C.J. James, a minister in Harlem, told WNBC-TV he wants Groupon boycotted, saying the ads were part of larger problem of racism in America.
"I felt heartbroken. I felt embarrassed. I felt ashamed," James said about seeing the Groupon ads.
The New York Daily News reported the ads have now been removed from the Groupon site.
"[Kojwa and Margines] are separate companies," a Groupon representative told Cosmopolitan, adding that the vendors are "Chinese-based enterprises."
"This is a known issue in the e-commerce space. We're determining why the deal slipped past the controls we have in place (we flag literally hundreds of terms and various permutations) and will make the necessary improvements."
Groupon's vice president of global communication Bill Roberts issued a statement to Cosmopolitan about the ads.
"We are appalled that this language was displayed on our site," Roberts said. "This product description was provided by a third-party seller via our self-service platform. Regardless, this is completely unacceptable and violates our policies – to say nothing of our values.”
"When made aware of the issue, we immediately removed the deal – as well as the third-party seller – from our marketplace. Language like this has no place on Groupon, and we're further strengthening our self-service controls to ensure it doesn't happen again," Roberts added.
One of reported offending third-party vendors, Chizo Onuh, told the Daily News her product was being sold by a "fake vendor."
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