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This
advertisement for vacations in the state of Missouri appeared in the April 2008
issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. In terms of approach, it shares
many similarities with the other ads in the “furthering relationships” section,
while it interpellates a different person in a similar type of magazine. This
particular advertisement is geared toward the middle-aged to older couple that
is looking for an exciting vacation for just the two of them. The couple
targeted by this ad is old enough to have children old enough that they are
going on a kid-free vacation – perhaps their children are in college, or
married with their own families.  The couple that is interpellated also is old
enough and has been together long enough to have reached what the ad seems to
imply is a place of stagnation in their marriage. I say this because the ad
focuses on the relationship between the couple – using both images and words to
convey that this vacation will put the spark back in their marriage.
For example, the text
that is the focal point of the ad says: “Turns out wine isn’t the only thing
that gets better with time.” This is a metaphor for the reader’s way of
thinking about themself, their spouse, and the relationship between them. As
they get older, both the man and the woman, as well as their relationship, gets
better over time – much like a fine wine. This advertisement promises that
this vacation will reveal these subtle truths to the couple as they experience Missouri. Although a range of activities are featured in this scrapbook-style ad,
including biking, eating good food, and going to art galleries, the Missouri
wine country is specifically emphasized with four references – continuing to
symbolize that the relationship will improve, much like the wine. The image
that makes up the background of the ad is a photo of the couple walking
hand-in-hand at a vineyard and one of the smaller pictures at the top shows the
couple in “Missouri Wine Country.” The other two references come from text –
one from the main catchphrase that I already discussed, the other from the text
on the lower left corner mentioning that Missouri has more than eighty
wineries. All of these references serve to reinforce the main message of the
ad, which emphasizes the improvement of a relationship over time. The images
reinforce this as they feature the couple holding hands, laughing together over
dinner, having fun together, and even the man shooting a sideways glance at his
wife in an art gallery that seems to say “I love you.”
The ad also states that
a vacation in Missouri is “Close to home. Far form ordinary.” With Missouri’s location in the lower Midwest region, I suppose that it is fairly close to home
for many United States residents, depending on the scale. When compared to a
trip to California for someone in the south, Missouri is close to home. When
compared to a trip to Maine for someone in North Dakota, Missouri is close to
home. This ad seems to be attempting to get out of the Missouri travel
stereotype with the words “far form ordinary” as well as the lack of references
to the vacation spot in Missouri that we all know about – Branson – full of
commercialization and family fun, and it is also very stereotypical.This ad
represents Missouri instead as relaxing, and a place to experience not just
great wineries and bed and breakfasts but also to “Discover…the person you fell
in love with, all over again.”
Pajnik and Lesjak-Tusek
suggest that ads such as the ones in this section “…create the inner voice of
the product that says to customers, “I am the one you need, I am the one you
desire, I am all that you have been missing”” (278). Like the other ads in
this section, this advertisement does not demand a relationship with the
viewer, but rather offers it to them, thus offering to fulfill the subject’s
desires (Jewitt and Oyama 145-146). And like the Colorado ad, the truth claims
in this ad are made by both the words and the images – stating a truth claim
and then demonstrating it through photos (Rose 144). This ad, as well as the
others in this section utilize these tools effectively in order to persuade the
reader, reaching out to their inner desires to do so and convince them that each
of these vacation locales can bring families and couples back together.
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