Never learn U.S. history from Groupon. That’s the lesson everyone learned when the day-of-the-deal website declared Alexander Hamilton a U.S. president.

February 17 marks Presidents Day and the birthday of the first president, George Washington. Groupon celebrated the day with a promotion that takes $10 off from purchases above $40, but that’s not all. They also said that they are doing the promotion to honor President Alexander Hamilton.

What got people talking is that Alexander Hamilton appears on the $10 bill, but was never elected as president of the U.S. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the country, and was the first Secretary of Treasury. Hamilton also contributed to the establishment of a national bank and the economic policies during Washington’s time in the White House.

The Groupon promotion garnered a flurry of reactions from the Twitter world, with most tweets saying that Groupon must be joking. Others assumed that it was just a publicity stunt. Aside from the news articles about Groupon, there were thousands of tweets about Groupon and their promotion. However, not all the tweets had a positive note.

Oops! #Groupon mistakes Alexander Hamilton as president http://t.co/6tzX3DTwfW #abc15

— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) February 18, 2014

Groupon honors ‘President’ Alexander Hamilton? Oh @Groupon, you obviously don’t know your presidents. #PresidentsDay http://t.co/6Z1hpYzn51

— Kristen Keys (@Siriusnerd007) February 17, 2014

Someone needs to give Groupon a lesson in American History. http://t.co/MMoZSUGt9h

— Gene Wojciechowski (@GenoEspn) February 16, 2014

A spokesperson for Groupon then stated that it is their goal for customers to save cash, and saving $10 from their promotion was no laughing matter. He also said that the “mistake” was intentional and that they wanted to create a humorous promotional post for Presidents Day. A lot of businesses also have promotional posts, but they wanted to be set apart from those and get the attention of customers everywhere. The spokesperson also said that the promotion was a big success, since it got a lot of exposure.

Groupon Unleashes President Alexander Hamilton, Accomplishes Obvious Goal – http://t.co/Zkdvud9i8U

— WPN (@WebProNews) February 17, 2014

Groupon wanted to be talked about and that’s what they got based on the exposure they received on Twitter – negative or positive – due to a deliberate “mistake”.

Image via Wikipedia Commons