Six Flags going a little bit overboard with in-park ads?

Take a look at this photo taken at Great Adventure a few days ago. I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous that is.

Have any of you witnessed this kind of ad bombarding at your local Six Flags parks this past season?

I recall seeing a few ads at Magic Mountain this past year, but nowhere as obvious and cluttered as in that photo above. They were usually spread out throughout the park and placed in areas that didn't shove the ads into your face (most of the time).

I know all these ad placements and sponsorships are helping Six Flags with revenue, but does anybody think they're going a bit overboard?

I agree that's completely ridiculous. It's not subtle like Disney "Kodak Spots" or other chain's in-park ads. Selling Papa Johns pizza is one thing, sticking banners on everything is another.

Working in Advertising - I see NOTHING wrong with what the GAdv is doing.... Sure, there might be a few too many signs in 1 specific area - but it's not like that's how the ENTIRE park looks....

Plus, isn't SixFlags doing that "Seeker" - coasters open 1 hour later thing anyway? It's a good way for people to connect the visual message with the actual promo that's going on.

It depends on how they are done. The "Seeker" ads aren't too bad, but there are plenty of spots where there are random billboards placed around the park, usually detracting from the look of the area.

I'm not sure if you remember, but SF has a lot of debt. This is why you are seeing ads, sponsors EVERYWHERE. Shapiro is very smart by doing this. He's getting the company on track financially.

Put it this way, ads, or no Six Flags?

^^^ Actually, that IS how the entire park looks. I'm all for advertising, but it doesn't need to consume the park. There is a line that can be crossed when you start p1ssing off your guests with over advertising. When we were at GAdv this summer, there were all kinds of credit card companies right in front of the main gate being obnoxious, they were selling time shares of some sort in front of Houdini and there were countless ads for Home Depot, TV shows, etc... It was ridiculous.

How many people love getting bombarded with junk mail, spam email, massive billboards and flyers being handed to you? There is a fine line you don't want to cross.

^I wouldn't be pissed off. Junk mail and spam are a little different than billboards.

gomez said:
Put it this way, ads, or no Six Flags?

This might just be a slight, slight, slight oversimplification of things, lol.

gomez said:

Put it this way, ads, or no Six Flags?

How about no ads and no Six Flags? :)

gomez said:
Junk mail and spam are a little different than billboards.

Not to some people. One is physical clutter and the others are visual clutter. Both are quite annoying. Besides, they're all just advertising. So, they're really not all that different. Some is good, a ton is bad.

Looks like a Formula 1 track on that ad style set up. You see when F1 comes to town you see many sections of race tracks line with advertisements in the excact same style. I generaly make fun of that style and say silly things like the is the RBS section of track, This is the Agip Section, ETC. It does seem to get the point across and it seems to work for me as I know the sponsers very well now becasue of that style. BTW that is the Seeker section of SFGAdv.

Chris Knight

My thought process on this is that if you're going to put in the crazy amount of advertising in the park like Six Flags has for the last two years (and it got much worse this year), that you should see big improvements in areas like physical maintenance like paint, and I haven't.

The way I look at is there is no difference between SF and this website. LOL

halltd said:
How many people love getting bombarded with junk mail, spam email, massive billboards and flyers being handed to you?

No one's ever handed me a massive billboard.

I really don't see an issue here. When my band advertises for upcoming shows, we do it selectively, sending out an email maybe twice a month. We play just about every weekend, sometimes on both Friday and Saturday, and we're careful not to promote every show with a separate email because we'd lose a good number of people on our mailing list. We know not everyone that likes the band wants to get seven or eight emails from us per month. It's overkill, and a nuisance.

Do you actually think people will stop visiting Six Flags because there are an abundance of posters hanging everywhere? This type of advertising I don't put in the same ballpark as spam or junk email. Might be a slight annoyance, but I'd be surprised if someone boycotted the park over it. It's not personally invasive like junk mail.

Ads mean revenue, but in that picture it's overkill, and anyone would realize that. I see it once, I get the point. 20 times in 20 feet, and I'll purposely look past it.

-Mark
Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.

I'd rather look at banners than deal with ride names like Poland Spring Plunge. Honestly, I think I've learned to block them out to the point where I don't even notice them anymore. Call me an advertising guru's nightmare.

If something is "over advertised", I intentionally don't buy it. ha ha!

That's true of me too. The more something is pushed on me, the less likely I am to buy it... probably because I'm a stubborn bastard.

^ Yeah it seems like a lot of us on here are. :)

Coasterbuzz is populated by a bunch of headstrong people? Coulda fooled me ;)