Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Dis-persuasion

You would think that on an external marketing site for a national park, the objective would be to draw in visitors, right? Usually yes. But on some occasions, the national parks sabotage themselves by writing things like this:

During the pony swim, approx. 40,000 visitors wait along what many say is an "extremely over crowded shoreline". Large numbers of people wait for many long hours in an area far from the swim where the restrooms are located. There are no restrooms close to the swim since it is a tidal marsh.
People say that the best way for you to experience the wild ponies of Assateague Island is to just: "Go any other time during the season. That's when you can see them best. You can see the herds of wild ponies where they live along the island on the boat nature tour that runs from May 16th thru Oct 11th"... If you are still interested in seeing the Annual Pony Swim, there is also a special charter to get a much closer view of the Chincoteague wild pony swim (limited seats).

Um, what? Which competitor hacked into their system?

4 comments:

M. said...

ha ha! Love it. I got your email yesterday... I might be going home that weekend but if not I am sooo there. I've been dying to go camping for a few months now. Odd yes, but I really have. Even went and wandered around REI looking for a cheap tent ;)

Anonymous said...

That's crazy.

Joseph and I were laughing about the LDS Newsroom feed that came in two days ago. Although we both liked the overall point of the message, I just couldn't get beyond this little line:

As someone recently said, “This isn’t 1830, and there aren’t just six of us anymore.”

Who? And why can't you just tell us?

chelsea mckell said...

hmmm... despite the idiotic writing... I want to see the pony swim. Where is that at? (too lazy to google it)

Jecca Lee Ivie Johnson said...

Sign me up - I've been dying to spend an entire day at a busy rest stop waiting for a slew of ponies to cross the marshes miles out of my view!