• Adweek, Monday, May 8, 2006 11:45 AM

Amusement Park Six Flags wants to take the company beyond its "theme park" positioning in a new marketing plan--and that means the popular, hyperactive "Mr. Six" character, created by the company's ad agency Doner, is on the way out. For that matter, Doner is also on the way out, having decided not to pitch the business after being told the account would go into review. The move is apparently the handiwork of Mark Shapiro, the chief executive at Six Flags, who was hired last year to turn the company around after a lengthy proxy fight launched by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder. Shapiro's strategy is to expand the park's image appeal, and to that end he has created a new, in-house entertainment and marketing department. Five agencies will pitch the $75 million creative account at a presentation in early June. They are: Omnicom Group's BBDO in New York and Zimmerman Advertising in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; WPP Group's JWT and Ogilvy & Mather, both in New York; and Interpublic Group's Deutsch in New York.

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