If you recently read Bloomberg, The LA Times or a few other news publications, you would have thought the sky was falling on SeaWorld and PETA was to blame.
It was an easy, and a bit lazy story to tell.
The news that everyone was quickly and haphazardly reporting, was that Virgin America was severing ties with SeaWorld. This was puzzling especially since recently Richard Branson, made a very public decision that Virgin Vacations, and his companies would continue to partner with SeaWorld and other Marine parks, if they pledged to not acquire any cetacean after April of 2014.
SeaWorld and other accredited zoological organizations immediately agreed to the pledge, and were eager to continue their successful longterm relationship.
The question is why after all this fanfare, after months of deliberation, would the relatively small Virgin America(a separate company, that Richard Branson’s parent company Virgin has only retained 22% ownership of) end it’s relationship with SeaWorld?
The answer is that Virgin didn’t sever ties with SeaWorld and the explanation is pretty self-evident.
Anyone who calls Virgin Vacations, today, or in the future, and wants to visit Orlando, can book tickets to SeaWorld’s amazing parks.
What did change is that Virgin America decided to remove SeaWorld from from it’s “Elevate” program, a program that allows members who make purchases at places like Gilt.com, Hilton.com and Virgin-Vacations.com to earn frequent flyer miles. So what that meant before this announcement was that Virgin Elevate members who purchased anything from SeaWorld.com could earn Frequent Flyer points.
SeaWorld was the ONLY theme park that participated in the Elevate program.
Is this a blow to SeaWorld? No
Is this a publicity stunt by extremists at PETA who wish to exploit any news or information to harm one of the world’s best zoological organizations? Yes.
How little of importance is this move by Virgin America? It is of so little importance, that it didn’t warrant a Press Release.
While PETA and other extremist groups pat themselves on their backs, Virgin Vacation travelers will continue to be able to book SeaWorld vacations, along with millions of other guests.
But there is a larger point here that the companies need to understand for themselves. We live in a protest everything world. With the click of a button, you too can be outrageously outraged in the public square. Usually, a company will just comply with the mob – the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
However, social media has given rise to the never ending petition to sign. The question becomes, just how valid is that petition? Are those your customers or are they the professionally offended? Will those legitimate signers actually remember that they signed or do they care that much?
It’s an easy tactic for groups like PETA to avail themselves of. Like a frivolous lawsuit – sometimes it’s just easier to settle.
Those companies ought to stop and take measure, because eventually the petition will be about you and there will be no one left to defend you.
For more on this story, check out: Behind the Thrills.