In an effort to increase its transparency with the public, SeaWorld
launched the #AskSeaWorld Twitter hashtag on Thursday. The effort sunk —
fast. The aquatic theme park chain has been dealing with a public relations setback in the wake of the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which accused the parks of unseemly practices in their care of captive orcas.
While SeaWorld answered a curated selection of questions on its SeaWorld Cares site — and addressed some of the criticisms raised by Blackfish and other animal rights activists — the hashtag nevertheless blew up with harsh, sarcastic remarks from everyone from PETA to people who just want to know, "Where does the poop go?"
An excellent question, one that has of yet gone unanswered by the SeaWorld overlords.
Check out the tweets below to see what other pressing questions the Twitter public wants answered.
3/27/15, 5:15 p.m. ET UPDATE:
SeaWorld has heard the mockery and has responded in the best possible way: by freaking out.Seaworld's response to the Internet outcry began with a tweet calling out the haters for being "so 2014," which is a solid, yet uninspired, burn. However, they also decided to include a very, very old gif with the tweet. Rage face, you guys? So 2010.
They followed that tweet by saying they couldn't answer questions because there were too many "trolls and bots" clogging their feed.
And when they did finally start answering questions on Twitter they acted like a spambot themselves, sending out the same stock responses to multiple people.
Seaworld, if you're trying to appear more friendly, honest, and approachable, you're really not doing it right.
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