This ad, for Cannery Row, shows a picture of three children playing on a white sand beach,

The children on the beach are smiling and appear to be playing a game and getting along well together. This happiness would appear to be brought on by their surrounding – they love being at the beach and just having time to play. This is something that would be appealing to mothers, who are worried about their children’s happiness. Furthermore, the children appear to be happy with out the mother’s help – which means the mother can relax. At the bottom of the ad, there is the rhetorical question: “When was the last time you had time to just watch your kids play?” In this add we see the mother doing just that, and this makes her happy. Cannery Row, this ad implies, can make that happen.

The advertisement also suggests that Cannery Row is exclusive, or remote and discreet. In the picture, there are no other people on the beach and there are no boats out on the water. The family had the whole place to themselves. But, if you look closely at the sand, the reader will see a myriad of footsteps and tracks. This is contradictory to what the image of children alone suggests. Having the family have the beach to themselves implies exclusivity, making Cannery Row more appealing, than it deserves.

Having the children alone on the beach, it can be said, is also something that is comforting to the mother. She does not have to worry about other people – criminals or otherwise – coming into contact with her children. Cannery Row is a place that she can take her family to escape all the dangers of city life (since many American’s live in cities, it is safe to assume that the intended audience are mothers living in urban areas). Parents often are happy, or at ease, when their family is safe. This advertisement is playing off that emotion.

Cannery Row is also a peaceful place by the bay. The ocean looks calm and tranquil, the blues of the ocean accented by the blue of the text box at the bottom of the page. Blue is a calming, relaxing color. The scenery in the ad doesn’t show any other human habitation or development, suggesting that Cannery Row is a place the reader can go to get away. Of course, this is false. All the development is behind the image, back where the woman is sitting.

Where the woman is sitting implies that you cannot only “Stay Here,” but also stay right on the beach. Nowhere in the advertisement does it say this directly, but it is implied by the positioning of the characters in the image. It is not eve clear whether the image itself is real though, it is possible that it is all photo-shopped.

I believe that this advertisement is effective. It relies on a mother’s emotional connection with her children and family, her quest for calmness and tranquillity, and her desire for safety and escape. The advertisement is aimed at upper-income individuals who have the money to spend on vacations, specifically beach vacations. It plays to their desire of exclusivity as well, with the lack of other people in the image.