Thoughts
Does Six Sell?
By Karen Hansen
“More flags. More Fun. Six Flags.” Can these six words sell summer fun? Six Flags sure believes so. I decided to sit down and watch a couple of the ads with my kids to find out if we agreed.
The first ad we watched was “Laser Kitty”.
As a cat lover, I started to giggle along with the initial premise, then in came the guy barking “One flag.” I got completely startled and wanted to scream “Shut up!” in his face. Then the commercial played screams from rollercoaster riders, followed by more yelling from the man, “Six Flags! More flags! More fun!” Then he smiled a big, fake smile.
Honestly, I watched the ads several times to finally catch the promotion of the season pass, concerts and new rides. I really didn’t get how the barking interruptions should be interpreted. They didn’t express summer fun or even excitement. It sort of makes you wish we could have the creepy dancing guy (from a previous Six Flags campaign) back. And haven’t we seen a similar ad concept before from Hot Pockets?
Since Six Flags is presumably trying to appeal to families, I thought it would be interesting to ask my children (ages 9 and 5) what they thought about the ads. My son, the 9-year-old, thought the “Laser Cat” ad was “funny,” but he didn’t appreciate the “screaming” man and didn’t feel like the ads made much sense. He also said he liked last year’s commercial with the dancing guy better.
Below are my 5-year-old daughter’s responses to questions I asked about the ad.
Do you like the ad?
No.
Do you like anything in the ad?
No.
We also reviewed the Six Flags “Popcorn Guy” ad.
I felt like the cat lady in the other ad at least offered some humor. Not so with the popcorn guy. I was bored right from the start, and the rest of the ad got the same response as “Laser Kitty” from me.
My son enjoyed the slapstick nature of the popcorn ad, but he still felt like the “More Flags. More Fun.” concept was confusing.
After watching the commercial, I asked my daughter if she knew what the commercial was for, and she responded, “I don’t have any idea,” but she admitted that it did make her want to ride a rollercoaster.
One thing we did all agree on was that we can easily recall the tagline. “More flags. More fun. Six Flags.” So, in a unique and painfully annoying way, maybe the creative strategy worked. When I hear the line, I flash back to my childhood and all of the family trips we took to Six Flags. The smell of fresh, hot asphalt. The taste of a melting Pink Thing. Standing in line for hours for a 30-second thrill ride then doing it all over again.
Overall, we felt like the ads are two rollercoasters short of a thrill, and for people like my children, who have never been to the amusement park and don’t have any concept of what Six Flags is like, the ads aren’t doing enough to show and convince people of the fun they can have in the park.
By the way, Six Flags, don’t be shy. You paid for the ads, put them on your website. It’s great that they’re on YouTube, but I shouldn’t have to go searching for them there.
E-mail the author: Karen Hansen
