TP Rich said:
Just because more people searched for THE SWARM doesn't mean it worked. If people hear and believe that the ride is potentially dangerous, they are less likely to ride, and the park are likely to lose a handful of customers from this so-called 'publicity stunt'. Is this not common sense?
I've already answered this previously in the topic, but I'll answer here and succinctly.
Yes, you're right. A handful of customers are likely to read this/hear about this and refuse to ride. They may even avoid the park. Some people are pretty thick and either don't read the entire article and understand that the article states the ride is safe, or don't understand enough about the world to realise that an amusement park doesn't put its guests in danger of death of deformity.
Common sense states that we must always assume that there are a few stupid people who will misunderstand.
Common sense also states that for a ride like The Swarm to be built, newspapers to be printed and the internet to be available to discuss it, that the majority of people
aren't thick as pig ****.
For every z person who won't ride it, there'll be another x amount who now see it as an extra level of thrill to ride on a "previously dangerous coaster" and another Y amount of people who will now have heard of the ride who hadn't before. At a cost of maybe half a day's work and a couple of mannequins from round the back of Saw's station, it's a very cost effective publicity stunt. Both x and y will always outnumber the z's so it's a nett gain for Thorpe, even if we're only talking a few people.
Sorry Ben, but the stunt will have had
some success. We can't quantify it, but to say it didn't have any kind of impact does fly in the face of logic. It's still wrong in my opinion, but it will have had some degree of success and will help to generate some discussion somewhere at a very low cost.
Personally, I think that the next time Thorpe call the press, they should be sent straight through to the advertising section and charged