Word: campaigners
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This could be a make-or-break summer for Six Flags. And in the current economic environment, families will likely sacrifice thrill-ride screams for savings. So why, in the face of such serious challenges, would Six Flags respond by rolling out an ad campaign featuring a widely mocked character that the company's own chairman once said is "misguided" and "weakens the brand"? Why, just when the stakes are at an all-time high, is a bankrupt company putting that creepy dancing old guy back on our TVs? (See the best and worst Super Bowl commercials...
...original Mr. Six ads ran from 2004 to 2005. But when Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, Six Flags' largest shareholder, won his bid to take control of the company in late 2005, he ripped the campaign. His management team soon killed the ads. "Mr. Six went on sabbatical," says Angie Vieira Barocas, senior VP of marketing and entertainment at Six Flags. "People associated him with Six Flags, but he wasn't necessarily converting people's intention to visit our parks into actual visitation." (See pictures of theme parks in China...
Though if Six Flags thought he had "more fans than not," it seems odd to strike the campaign in the first place. Vieira Barocas contends that the original commercials put the gyrating gnome too front and center. Now he has more of a supporting role. In the new ads, Mr. Six rates the fun of various activities on a scale of 1 to 6 flags. Throwing a baseball at your dad's crotch? "Two flags," Mr. Six chirps. Riding a Six Flags roller coaster? "Six flags," Mr. Six tells us in a voice that sounds like a cooing father...
...such antismoking strategies are to succeed, health experts warn that speed is essential. "The challenge for Africa is to adopt policies to reduce tobacco use before the epidemic sweeps across the continent," says Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. To that end, Nigeria is taking a page from the West's playbook, filing a $45 billion damages suit against British American, Philip Morris and the domestic firm International Tobacco, alleging what Irukera calls a "clear strategy to market their products to young people." The tobacco companies deny the charge...
...announced on Thursday that he would not meet President Obama's target of passing legislation by early August. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California backed away from the idea of cancelling the August recess. Obama tried his best to stoke a sense of urgency with a publicity campaign that included a televised press conference Wednesday evening. But caution prevailed over the orator's usual magic...