The Beach poking fun at Boomerang Bay

Raging Waters San Dimas? You mean Waterloo, home of excellent water slides?

Ragings waters in San Jose was poking fun at Boom Bay at PGA also. "Spend a day at a REAL waterpark, not some park with just a few slides thrown in, and no pools"....and there was more. It went something like that.

edit: oops, someone already said this *** Edited 6/11/2004 10:20:56 PM UTC by ace4242424***

Actually this is a very common advertising scheme. An underdog (usually major underdog) attacks the top player or biggest and waits for a response from the other company. They are wanting PKI to lash back, if they do The Beach wins. A major chain spending valuable money to gain the edge over the smaller park. It shows The Beach that PKI does count on them as a competitor. You rarely ever see something like US Cellular attack Verizon Wireless. You see Cingular attack AT&T Wireless. Usually players in the same tier of the industry.

Last Sunday we went to the Beach because PKI was closed for DIAA Day, and while I could have gotten tickets through my work, I wasn't going to pay $10 for a special ticket to get in when I already have a gold pass that'll get me in any other day of the season. Anyway, the other reasons we went to the Beach were a coupon we had for 2 admissions for $20, and because I wanted to check out this Volcanic Panic! The now famous commercial poking fun at PKI was being played rampant throughout the park, as well as, the claim of being the "...best waterpark this side of the river!" Besides being an unrealistic statement, what competition do they have on the other side of the river anyway? The one good thing I saw there was the addition of some rock formations in the wave pool to give it more of an island feel, other than that, ...nothing! False advertising was also in practice for Volcanic Panic. All info./advertising in Dayton gives you the idea VP is open, when in reality, it's still being built. It opens July 3rd. It was really rundown, and Snake River Rapids was closed, as was the back portion of the park, except Aztec Adventure, (the water coaster). The whole experience was very sad, and their fate will be the same as Surf Cincinnati...eventually.

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ldiesman said:
Actually this is a very common advertising scheme. An underdog (usually major underdog) attacks the top player or biggest and waits for a response from the other company.

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No... that's a Marketing 101 faux pas. You never, ever call out a competitor that has you by the balls and draw a comparison. That's the single most stupid thing you could possibly do. Shaggy already mentioned how stupid that was for Six Flags in Cleveland.

Actually it doesn't matter. The water park at Holiday World has them both beaten so badly it's not even close, and it will continue to pull further away as it adds more rides.

True... but water parks rarely include a market three hours away.

Have you not seen the Boomerang Bay billboards in Cleveland? Of course, that's different because PKI can be a destination park without BB while Holiday World isn't going to be a destination park for your average Joe without Splashin' Safari.

While I have seen quite a few Boomerang Bay billboards here in Cleveland, they really don't do anything to show what it's about. All it shows is Paul Hogan in his Crocodile Dundee outfit and the "2 days for the price of 1" slogan.

As a gold pass holder, it doesn't really affect me as I'll go to PKI as much as I can during the summer but as a GP, those billboards do not sell the park or water park.

And since we are on the topic of making fun of other parks, don't you think GL's new "The Fun Is Back" is poking fun at SF? I never thought the fun left in the first place.

X Factor *** Edited 6/14/2004 3:06:54 AM UTC by X Factor***

Yeah, but so what? Six Flags isn't in the market anymore, and they were never a leader at anything.

They were a leader at marine life in an amusment park in your neck of the woods. :)

Guess that doesn't matter now.

I wouldn't necissarily say its poking fun as much as stating a fact....apparently SFI wasn't running a very fun amusment park, or they would still own the park, IMHO...:)

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Jeff said:
No... that's a Marketing 101 faux pas.

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It is stupid, but common in every marketplace.

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The Beach has it's own charm with the wooded setting and water coaster, and that has kept it alive, along with the downslide of Waterworks. The Beach will probably see an attendance decline this year, but I can't imagine that PKI will do much with Boomerang Bay for a while after this year. That means the Beach needs to put their money where their mouth is and build something new and exciting. Poking fun at a competitor with a much larger pocketbook than you is indeed an error, but PKI is not a waterpark, it is an amusement park with a waterpark....that has more to do than just build slides. If Schlitterbahn were across the street than it would be a stupid move, but I think it's a little different in this case