Ad Blitz From PETA Hits Back at SeaWorld’s Bogus Claims

Campaign Urges Los Angelenos to Shun Abusement Park

For Immediate Release:
May 23, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

In response to SeaWorld’s focus on Los Angeles families with an ad blitz, PETA is debunking the company’s claims in a citywide ad blitz of its own. Television and radio ads are scheduled to start airing this week on multiple Los Angeles stations, a billboard on the Santa Ana Freeway went up on May 8, and a strong social media push will continue throughout the summer.

PETA’s ad blitz sends the message that SeaWorld still keeps orcas in tiny concrete tanks (including a new baby who will be imprisoned for decades) and forces them to perform on command (in what the park now calls “encounters”). The company also continues to breed other animals—even though it has ended orca breeding—forcing them to endure lives of suffering and artificiality.

“SeaWorld is pouring money into a death-rattle campaign trying to lure back audiences who have learned how animals suffer in tiny tanks,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s counter-campaign exposes SeaWorld’s attempt to mislead the public, whose tolerance for profit-driven animal exploitation is at an all-time low, just like the company’s ticket sales.”

PETA’s tongue-in-cheek anti-SeaWorld ad starring Lily Tomlin just won a prestigious Bronze Telly Award, one of the most sought-after awards by advertising industry leaders. You can watch the spot here.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that animals are not ours to use for entertainment—notes that in the wild, orcas work cooperatively to find food, forge intricate relationships, and traverse up to 100 miles of ocean every day. At SeaWorld, they’re housed in incompatible groups and given the drug diazepam to manage stress-induced aggressive behavior.

For more information, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com.