What's new

Another Crappy Publicity Stunt From Thorpe

furie said:
Gazza said:
This story actually got printed in the Brisbane Mx (A commuter newspaper similar to the London Metro) they've certainly gotten it out there.

Page 12: Major flooding.
Page 8: Hurricane the size of Europe
Page 6: Killer forest fires
Page 1: Forp is Hornted!

Priorities - they have none.

Ha. That post is fantastic, so non-PC. Just the way I like it!

Anyway, yeah, Ian is correct, it does strike me as odd too, I mean, usually, if you did an article like this to promote a new attraction (which is the whole point of this silly story), you'd have the bit about the haunting, then the new ride information, then link them together, then more about the ride, then end of press release. Whereas, they haven't exactly done this, yes, they've touched up on it slightly. Not as much as you'd think though.
 
To be fair Mx have picked up a few Merlin stunts in the past, We've had the story about the B.O at Thorpe park, and the no speedos at Alton Water Park.
 
This has been covered almost factually by the Daily Mail and reported as far afield as newspapers in New York. It may be cheesy and crap but it's been effective.
 
Were they panicing that it might be a "foreign monk ghost, coming over here and taking our ghosts' jobs"?

Or did they take the "HEADLESS MONKS CAUSE CANCER" angle?
 
I'm surprised no one has picked up on the little snippet at the end of the article in The Sun, about some new owners for Pontins wanting to turn all their resorts into Disneyland style resorts, with some £25m investment soon...
 
Martyn B said:
I'm surprised no one has picked up on the little snippet at the end of the article in The Sun, about some new owners for Pontins wanting to turn all their resorts into Disneyland style resorts, with some £25m investment soon...
I think the words people are looking for are "I'll believe that when I see it." Pontins, Butlins etc will never become Disney style resorts. Chalets and caravans don't really give out that impression, do they?
 
^ I know what you're saying, I'm not exactly holding my breath... but still, that is some claim, so they must at least have something half decent planned?
 
Urgh, caravan parks make my skin crawl in the same way swimming pool changing room floors do...Just have an air of dirtyness to them. Blergh.

Keep your caravans, I'd stay in my nice Travelodge thank you.

Although, they will have the last laugh if they do turn into Disney-style (what does this even mean?!) resorts!
 
Martyn B said:
I'm surprised no one has picked up on the little snippet at the end of the article in The Sun, about some new owners for Pontins wanting to turn all their resorts into Disneyland style resorts, with some £25m investment soon...

Try and multiply that figure by 10, per resort, and you might get a tenth of the way towards a disney style resort....
 
Hasn't Pontins gone bust? I know that PGL have pulled all their contracts with them, and ripped out all their equipment quick smart, incase it got got classed as an asset of Pontins and got taken away by the receivers... Therefore, can't really see them making any investment any time soon, let alone on that kind of scale.
 
Rob said:
Try and multiply that figure by 10, per resort, and you might get a tenth of the way towards a disney style resort....

I wonder what would happen if they invested 100 times that amount? ;)

Pontins was utterly dire. In terms of yoghurt, places like Haven and Butlins are somewhere between Activia, Muller Corners and Tesco Value range (depending on site).

Pontins was a pint of milk left out on the doorstep in Ethiopia for three months. There are few places in this world that I have said I would refuse to return to, even for free. Pontins is top of the list though.

In an excellent move, this discussion has gone completely away from the pants PR stunt by Thorpe though :)
 
nadroJ said:
Urgh, caravan parks make my skin crawl in the same way swimming pool changing room floors do...Just have an air of dirtyness to them. Blergh.

Keep your caravans, I'd stay in my nice Travelodge thank you.

Although, they will have the last laugh if they do turn into Disney-style (what does this even mean?!) resorts!

SNOB! :p.

Flamingoland caravan park was extremely clean and nice. The caravans themselves were very well maintained and it was a very comfortable weekend for us...
 
Thorpe Park rollercoaster crash test dummies lose LIMBS

Bit of humorous publicity from FORP:

A popular theme park had to make drastic changes to a new rollercoaster ride after crash test dummies lost LIMBS during a test run.

Thorpe Park's new big dipper, The Swarm, was "alarmingly' damaged during a recent run-through.

A number of the crash test dummies were scratched and lost legs.

It forced a costly operation to make changes to comply fully with health and safety requirements.

An emergency response team was called in to work on the ride, re-modelling a life-sized church and making other changes ahead of the park opening in March.

Mike Vallis, divisional director at Thorpe Park, said: "The ride-testing phase is absolutely crucial in ensuring extreme fun doesn't compromise safety, and we work with the very best teams in the world to ensure we reach the gold standard in safety, so if that means re-modelling a church it's taken us a year to build, then so be it.

"To lift the lid on what goes on behind the scenes of building a monster rollercoaster such as The Swarm is quite unprecedented, but we want people to understand the level of planning, precision and care that goes into creating their ultimate thrill-seeking experience."

Thorpe Park, located in Chertsey, Surrey, is the second most visited theme park in the UK after Alton Towers. In 2009, it had 1.87 million visitors.

It is well known for its rollercoasters, with Nemesis Inferno, Stealth and Colussus among the major attractions.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... z1kNuGLWl2
 
Let me help bring the news item into perspective, topic wise ;)
 
I think this "marketing campaign", if you can call it that, is actually quite good. I know it makes us enthusiasts hate Thorpe, but I can see it drawing in visitors crazy fast!
 
The news about the supposed problems with The Swarm have reached the Spanish media :--D :--D (and it wasn't me). Some newspaper wrote an article in a blog saying that The Swarm had been testing but something had gone wrong.

http://blogs.20minutos.es/becario/ (Written in Spanish)

So, an A+ for Merlin's PR department: this piece of news was cheap to produce (I guess) yet it has spreaded like wildfire...
 
So, in all seriousness, how are B&M going to feel about this?

I know the GP wont know who they are, but most parks will, and surely hearing this will affect their reputation?
 
Top