Carnival Suspends Some Cruise Marketing

The Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground on Italy's Giglio island is at "high risk" of sinking, threatening Europe's biggest marine park as a storm heads toward the area. Olivia Sterns reports on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse" with Mark Barton.

Carnival Corp. (CCL), owner of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground last week, halted advertising for its Carnival Cruise Lines and announced a review of safety procedures in the aftermath of the accident.

Carnival suspended broadcast, digital and direct-mail marketing for its namesake line “for the time being,” Vance Gulliksen, a spokesman for the Miami-based company, said yesterday in an e-mail.

Eleven people are confirmed dead in the Jan. 13 accident off the coast of Italy, with about 20 still missing. Carnival’s unit Costa Crociere SpA yesterday suspended the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, who was placed under house arrest on Jan. 17 for allegedly causing the shipwreck.

The world’s largest cruise operator waited almost a week to suspend advertising after the Concordia, carrying 4,200 passengers and crew, ran aground off Italy. Airlines and oil companies typically pull television ads following accidents with fatalities. The wreck occurred at the start of the cruise industry’s peak booking season.