The Dorsal Fin

In light of Discovery Channel’s recent fear-based ad campaign, I thought I’d revisit Save Our Seas Foundation‘s “Rethink The Shark” ad campaign from 2007. The award-winning ads (based on a well-known scene from Jaws, no less) are proof-positive that an audience-gripping ad campaign can be created, while still maintaining a conservationist-minded theme. The ads were created by advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi Capetown. Three ads were created, all of them with the same lead-in as the ad posted above. The other two ads ended with a kite and a toaster.

I love how the ads take the fear and familiarity of Jaws and turn it around to increase awareness about just how rare fatal shark attacks are.

My Fox Tampa Bay recently released two video segments about shark attacks, which seem to be in response to Wednesday’s attack at St. Pete Beach involving 19-year old, Jenna James. Kudos to the producers and reporters involved with these segments for taking the high road and reporting the facts of shark attack odds and stressing awareness as opposed to fear when it comes to sharks and swimming in the ocean.
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Video footage featuring a shark, which some believe to be a white shark, swimming around in the ocean near Malibu, California is making the rounds on the local news outlets in the Los Angeles area. The quality of the raw shark footage video isn’t the greatest (there is a link for it at MyFoxLA.com). It certainly appears that it could be a white shark, but I’m not sure how one could be absolutely positive of the species based on the video footage. Given the size and silhouette seen in the video, if I had to venture a guess, I’d go with white shark. However, KTLA.com quotes Julie Scardina from Sea World as saying that the shark could be a mako. If it is a great white, it isn’t exactly groundbreaking news that a white shark would be observed in the area. Despite Scardina’s statement that “typically, white sharks are found further north,” white sharks are certainly no strangers to Southern California.
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At this point, I know I’m beating a dead horse, but I really feel like Discovery Channel’s YouTube campaign is just going overboard, particularly the Shark Week 2009 promotional video below, titled “Swimming girl is in for a surprise,” in which a girl is swimming along and is then snatched by an unseen force (presumably a shark). It’s followed by some bloody “Shark Week” text and then a Discovery Channel logo with the Earth apparently bleeding in the water.

If that’s not enough, Discovery’s YouTube channel page features a watery background with blood and articles of clothing floating about. The first seven videos in their “Shark Week Archives” playlist focus on shark attack on humans.
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The fear-free ad

This really should come as no surprise to anybody who has been following the marketing campaign for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. Last week I touched on the fear-based campaign, and I saw further evidence of it yesterday while doing a Google News search for the search string “Great White Shark.” I noticed in the Google Ads that Discovery Channel’s “bring fear back to Shark Week” attitude was in full-force. To their credit, out of the five ads that I came across, one of them was “fear-free” and simply, descriptively, and effectively advertised Shark Week. The remaining four rely more on conjuring up fear towards the animals they are featuring in their upcoming programming…

Graphic content and fear abounds

While doing a search on “sharks” today, I ran into another “Graphic Content” ad for FrenziedWaters.com, Discovery’s horror-themed promotional website for Shark Week.

Graphic Shark Videos, with bits of flesh? Are you serious?

Discovery Channel, your marketing campaign continues to disappoint me and is a disservice to shark conservation efforts.