Ark TV Commercials Being Noticed!

Well, our marketing campaign for the Ark Encounter is certainly being noticed! What is interesting is that people who don’t agree with our position on the authority of God’s Word will jump at anything to try to mock, undermine, and criticize us. And that’s certainly true of a commentary that appeared on the Natural Historian website.

First, watch our 30-second commercial:

And look at this Ark Encounter poster we produced:

Now the author of the Natural Historian states the following:

I can’t help but point out the irony in this poster and the Ark Encounter advertising campaign in general: The “literal” depiction of the true Ark is being promoted with false imagery. Ken Ham gushes over his Ark daily on Twitter as bringing the literal truth of the Noah’s Ark to the world. It will show the true dimensions of the ark and be built of wood. It will proclaim the truth like no other Christian icon every [sic] has before. But look at the animals in what is supposed to represent the open door of the ark, with either the animals entering or exiting the ark. These animals are very modern species. If you visit the Ark Encounter this summer you will discover that Answers in Genesis does not believe that any of the animals that literally entered and exited this ark looked like they are depicted in this poster. Paying customers will instead find sculptures of the common ancestors of the animals shown here. For example, the Ark Adventure will not have a modern giraffe species but rather a short neck animal with a different face.

He is absolutely correct that the animals in the poster (and commercial) are modern species, not the representative kinds that were on the Ark. This was very deliberate in our marketing! This critic doesn’t understand (or he does understand but wants to mock us any way) our modern-day marketing campaign, and he did not read the tag line carefully: “The Voyage Begins AGAIN.” This is not the original Ark—it’s a re-creation (a life-size model) of the original. The TV commercial shows people living today and animals that exist in the present that are heading for our re-created 2016 Ark. The advertising is meant to encourage people to also head for the Ark Encounter. The poster shows animals of today going to the Ark for this new “voyage.”

The author of this article probably has little experience in 21st-century marketing. And he could have certainly done some additional research (like watching the Ark Encounter TV ad) before writing such a hit piece about a supposed contradiction.

When it comes to the animals inside the Ark’s re-creation, we will feature teaching exhibits to help people understand the difference between “kinds” of animals and today’s “species.” Along with other world-class exhibits, we will have many sculpted animals seen in cages as a part of our teaching exhibits; these animals will represent many of the original kinds that were on the first Ark. We will document our careful scientific research into what constitutes a kind—and will answer questions such as, “How could Noah have fit the animals on the Ark?”

The approach in our teaching exhibits is totally different from our modern marketing campaign and the depiction of animals today. All of this was thought through very carefully—in fact, we spent hundreds of hours discussing the marketing approach using animals.

I have to smile when I read criticisms like the one on this Natural Historian website, as such authors (and those who make comments below the piece) seem to jump at anything they can to be critical of what we are doing. Really, our marketing agents put together what we believe is a quite brilliant marketing campaign.

So come and visit the Ark Encounter as the voyage begins AGAIN.

And watch for our marketing campaign as we advertise this major attraction across the nation.

Here’s the link to this poorly researched article if you want to read it.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken