Advertising on American Eagle

[jm2775]

Passed by GA today, and noticed a HUGE banner inviting Illinois drivers to try Geico Insurance. Its a huge yellow and white banner. This is extremely tacky in my opinion. Anyone see it? Whats your take?

[diggerg56]

It might look tacky but it's right on target with what the current management (Shapiro, et al) has in mind for generating more revenue.

The same goes with the electronic message center with the sign along I-294.

You're going to see more and more of this in the future I'm afraid.

Have you noticed all the "Home Depot facts" signs around the park? those types of things are presented as exposure opportunities to advertisers and sold as such.

Maybe the banner is overkill (I haven't seen it yet) but it's one of the things that they feel they need to do to generate capital.

[[jonrev]]

...

[batcave]

So did the new sign. Everything pisses you off Jon.

[sfgam1992]

The website sais Geico is sponsoring Memorial day weekend so the sign might be temporary.

http://www.sixflags.com/greatAmerica/ev ... vents.aspx

[cycamps]

I'm no professional, but maybe the signs could help park revenue, making it possible to put more newer, nicer things in the park.

[RagingBullFan]

Heh... Just wait until you see the Geico Gecko in the parade this weekend....

[Carlo]

I believe it is just for this weekend only.

[cycamps]

Are you kidding me? I'd say that that is a little overboard. But, I don't want to contradict what I said before, so I guess as long as they are making good money.

[BrianPlencner]

Drove by the park on my way home from work, so I figured I would get a few pics of this banner. I want to add that I was driving at the time, so they may not be the best. But, hopefully, they do show where the banner is, and how big it is.

First, one from Washington Street
[albumimg]1599[/albumimg]


From I-94, going south.
[albumimg]1600[/albumimg]

[cycamps]

good pictures; sorta random how geico is there

[Chitown]

Hey, I don't need to see Geico commercials anymore since I now live in Florida. We have the real thing here (geckos).

[zjohn1988]

^I gotta say, Florida is nicer eh?

[cycamps]

Is the Driving Force theme still on V2?

[[jonrev]]

No.

[Mr. D.T.]

Here's a joke of a story:

Imagine the gecko from Geico telling all his non-customers they have the wrong insurance company and need to switch to Geico. He's done that for almost a decade. He preaches his silly ads from the top of the AE. All of a sudden, Tiny and her babies (from Fright Fest) show up wanting to gobble the little critter so the Geico gecko makes a run for it. Whether he escaped or not is unknown.

I don't mind the Home Depot ads since I'm aware they're extending the life of one of my favorite coasters (and Mark Shapiro's), the American Eagle.

[cycamps]

I never thought of it like that. If it extends the life of AE, that's perfectly fine with me. That's my favorite coaster and it will be horrible when its life comes to an end. Hopefully it's not for a long time.

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

I don't really mind any of this advertising. I like the home depot ones, it's really interesting to find out these facts. I don't think the Geico ones are a big deal either.

[tp41190]

The park is doing what it needs to do.

Is looking at some ads/banners/and signs really that bad. All there trying to do is get some more money to keep the park nice. Its just like TV with commercials....if it went for commercials you wouldn't have channels to watch. Except for PBS And I know we would all love to watch PBS all day.

Personally, I would rather look at a nice park with some advertisements then a crappy park with out them. Its either that, or they jack the price on everything in the park....

season passes- $120+
bottled water- $5+
A pizza meal- $30+
on ride photos- $15+

So its really not that bad...

[cycamps]

That's what I thought

[Bob O]

I would agree that from the photo it appears to be tacky.

The least amount of this in park advertising the better, it detracts from what little theming is already in the park.

[[jonrev]]

^

Little theming left?? I hope that's a joke.

Go to (formerly Paramount's) Great America and then tell me SFGAm has little theming. Aside from Boomerang Bay, PGA has almost no theming left at all.

[Bob O]

No joke at all!!!
Comparing a park to Paramounts Great America is a joke, now compare the theming to parks like WDW/USF and Busch Garden parks.
When I was at the park on Saturday they had a guy with little talent singing rocks songs in Southwest Terr., unless something has changed I dont think that goes with the western theme.

[Mr. D.T.]

What I said was a joke about the gecko being eaten up by Tiny.

I totally agree on others opinions about having a nice park with ads than a dirty one without ads. And $5 for a bottled water is ridiculous when you can buy a whole case for that amount.

[Cryptkeeper]

What I said was a joke about the gecko being eaten up by Tiny.

I totally agree on others opinions about having a nice park with ads than a dirty one without ads. And $5 for a bottled water is ridiculous when you can buy a whole case for that amount.

So you think the ads pay for people to clean the park? Hrm, I wonder where other parks that have cleaners that don't use this much advertising or no advertising at all get the money to pay their own cleaners.

You all seem to forget that Six Flags is $2 billion in debt. It seems like every week they're making a new pack with some advertiser (Kraft, Home Depot, Geico, Papa John's, etc., etc. etc. etc.!). I could be wrong, but I have a feeling all of this extra influx of cash is more to help with paying off the debt than to pay for people to clean the park. If that's the case, they're going to need a lot more advertisers to help make a dent in the $2,000,000,000 owed.