Ever since the eye-opening documentary Blackfish was released and consumers become educated on the many dirty secrets of SeaWorld marine parks, the company has been relentlessly trying to win the public back over.
Much of its efforts have come in the form of expensive advertisements, such as SeaWorld’s multimedia ‘Facts About SeaWorld’s Killer Whales’ campaign.
As you can view below, the new ad features trainers of the marine park arguing, against all scientific proof, that the whales in captivity are truly well and happy, as well as live longer than orcas in the wild. They maintain that stance despite evidence of a 103-year-old orca, named ‘Granny’ thriving free and in the wild.
Watch for yourself below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fa6inwzLlA]
In 2014, the company upped its marketing budget to $189.4 million and that number is expected to be bigger for 2015.
“As regard to the reputation spending, we do have a little bit of news here. We have been working over the last 69 days quite diligently on pulling a marketing campaign for SeaWorld that is our normal marketing campaign which will be breaking sometime in late March and we are also – we’ve also spent a lot of time in research and marketing on the reputation side and we’ll be breaking a campaign no later than April in multiple media, in social media and print, digital,” explained CFO James Heaney at SeaWorld’s fourth quarter of 2014 earnings call on February 26, 2015.
But despite all their efforts, the campaigns have gotten near the support the marine park was anticipating. On Twitter, the hashtag #AskSeaWorld took a turn for the worse with animal rights advocates and concerned wildlife lovers asking SeaWorld how it could compare a tank to a life in the ocean, among other questions.
And SeaWorld’s attempt to discredit former trainer John Hargrove, who appeared on ‘Blackfish’ and wrote a book about the park’s mistreatments of its orcas, by digging up a five-year-old video of him drunkenly using a racial slur, was also discredited.
Not only that, the new ad campaign has more dislikes than likes on YouTube. Yet despite all that advertising, the park’s stock is still falling – just like its attendance and revenue.
What are your thoughts? Share in the comments section below.
This article (SeaWorld’s New Ad Desperately Tries To Convince You, Their “Orcas Are Thriving”) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com.
