First it was Canada. Now it’s the U.K.
England’s Alton Towers Resort — which describes itself as the U.K.’s best-loved theme park — is finishing up a one-week pilot program aimed at keeping adults’ attention on kids and fun, I’m guessing, rather than texting friends, emailing work or checking the current sports scores.
As the park’s Web site explains:
**The “PDA Free Zone” is to encourage parents to disconnect from the office and reconnect fully with their families. PDA police will be onsite to enforce the ban and any adult caught using a PDA whilst [*ed. note — got to love the English way with words*] at the Resort will be asked to report to one of five “PDA Drop Off Zones” where they can safely leave their PDA’s for the day. If the scheme is successful, it will be introduced full time.**
*”What we have here is the ultimate short break location where every member of the family can unwind and have fun. We feel it’s so important for parents and kids to focus on nothing more than having the best possible time, we are prepared to take drastic action to ensure that parents really leave their work behind!” said Russell Barnes, divisional director for the Alton Towers Resort.*
Wouldn’t you love to see Busch Gardens or Six Flags and even, oooh, Disney World, Just try this in the U.S. They’d be burning Mickey’s ears and chasing the little people out the It’s a Small World world.
I mean we’re a country that gets upset when Burger King supposedly eliminates the Whopper from its menu (which was a pretty funny marketing campaign) and whose Internet community just forced Dunkin Donuts to pull a Rachael Ray commercial because some scarf she was wearing was deemed offensive.
So I gotta hand it to the Brits, and I can’t wait to hear about its effectiveness.
I also thought the Web site pic of the program was darn cute.