Discovery Channel’s Fear-based Google Ads for Shark Week
by TheDorsalFin on Jul.23, 2009 at 2:08 pm, under Opinions in the media
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.
July 23rd, 2009 on 3:41 pm
This entire ad campaign is quite a counter point to recent interviews with DC staffers who say Shark Week is the complete opposite.
July 23rd, 2009 on 9:32 pm
The staffers might be well-intentioned, but the ad campaign surely is misguided. Ultimately, somebody up the chain of command at Discovery should take some responsibility on the issue.