SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. SEAS has been struggling with declining revenues and poor attendance over the past couple of quarters owing to the negative publicity surrounding the treatment of whales in captivity. In order to clear its stance, this amusement and theme park company has come up with a new advertising campaign that stresses on its efficiency and contributions toward the protection and care of killer whales.
The print and TV advertisements and online videos worth $10.0 million would feature SeaWorld veterinarians, researchers and other members of the company's team of 1,500 animal care experts. Besides proving the claims of animal rights activists as false, they will explain how the company cares for its killer whales.
The print ads will reportedly appear in leading newspapers like the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. These will feature the company's top veterinarian saying that animals' "health and well-being is my priority every day." This will be accompanied by television advertisements, effective immediately. Meanwhile, behind the scenes videos from the park featuring trainers and other animal-care workers monitoring whales’ growth and checking blood samples will be launched on YouTube.
These efforts are in response to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) demand to close zoos and aquariums and even limit pet ownership and other forms of human-animal engagement. PETA believes that whales live shorter lives in captivity than in the wild and it has come up with more than 110 such releases against SeaWorld Entertainment over the past two years. Meanwhile, the release of Blackfish, a documentary aired by CNN in 2013 that focused on issues pertaining to the treatment of whales in captivity has added to the company’s woes.
Owing to these issues, attendance at the company’s parks has fallen drastically, thereby resulting in dismal results over the past few quarters. Also, its CEO Jim Atchison recently declared his decision to step down and announced job cuts. Share price of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has plunged 35% over the past one year.
We believe this ad campaign is the need of the hour. Also, in order to fight against the negative publicity, we note that the company had announced the expansion of killer whale habitats at three of its parks last year. (Read: SeaWorld Entertainment Plans Bigger Killer Whale Homes). We need to wait and see the impact of these initiatives on its traffic and revenues.
Some better-ranked stocks in the leisure and recreational services industry include Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. LYV, AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC and Vail Resorts Inc. MTN. While Live Nation Entertainment and Vail Resorts sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), AMC Entertainment carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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