So, SeaWorld is awful. From Blackfish to Beneath the Surface, we’re hearing a lot about how crap SeaWorld is. SeaWorld would rather that we don’t buy the hype, but I’m buying. It has been bought.
I’m not an anti-zoo activist…or really any kind of animal rights activist. It seems to me, however, that it’s time to stop using animals – maybe especially large animals – as entertainment spectacles. Maybe SeaWorld means well (and I think that’s seriously debatable), but I think there’s a fair amount of meeting the bare-minimum and saying, look we’re following the law like…
“When you look at the Animal Welfare Act, the parks meet it, but the act is outdated. Killer whales aren’t even acknowledged as being dangerous.” – Former trainer Bridgette Pirtle via NatGeo
SeaWorld is in trouble and they know it. They’ve even launched a snazzy new commercial to talk about how they really are awesome and all these people telling you otherwise have no idea what they’re talking about. Their commercial is airing frequently on Hulu. I’m sure that commercials are a bit different for everyone on Hulu because they are tailored to some extent. I know that whenever I’m watching Hulu on my computer and I see (or hear…because let’s be honest during the commercials you pop over to another tab and do something else) a commercial that I’m not cool with I say “no, this is not relevant to me” because that’s an option on my computer. On my television, it is not.
Now, I’m a paying HuluPlus customer and I have been for a few years. It is weird to me at this point that HuluPlus doesn’t have an option to note relevance of commercials on their television app. Still, it’s not an option. How ever will I then express my discontent? Well, I emailed them and expressed my discontent and explained the ways in which I have no ability to stop these commercials that I find very offensive to the point of being upsetting. Seeing them is doing the opposite of what I think SeaWorld is interested in doing.
To the point, finally, I’ve decided to start using twitter to let HuluPlus know about my discontent, and I hope that if you watch shows on Hulu that you will too. I know, I could just unsubscribe from Hulu and stop watching it entirely, but I like my Hulu and screw SeaWorld, that is not how this is going down. Instead, I’ve decided to tweet my displeasure @HuluPlus every time I see this asinine SeaWorld commercial. I, however, am just one person and that’s why I’d like to enlist you. If you watch Hulu and have a twitter account, please tell HuluPlus every time you see one of SeaWorld’s damage-control propaganda commercials and tell them to stop accepting ad money from SeaWorld.
From here on out I’ll be hashtagging all my tweets to HuluPlus “boycottseaworld” and I hope that you’ll join me.
Unavoidably Feminist 