When you see the ads repeatedly, as you might if you lived in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, or Florida, they more or less merge, mentally. That it is a sunny, wholesome, and optimistic place where everyone is middle class, the weather is always balmy, and conflict is nowhere in evidence. The dominant emotion is less good cheer than a kind of deep joy at being alive in this kind of world. Babies are born into loving homes. Children learn in sun-soaked classrooms.
Men take satisfaction in physical work.
Elderly people engage in meaningful and satisfying leisure activities. Most of all, people work, play, and learn together across boundaries of age and race indeed, without any seeming awareness of those lines at all. No more than similar kinds of images have to do with the question of whether you should buy a Volvo car or a General Electric dishwasher, or feel positive feelings about Fannie Mae or Cisco, a corporation that advertises on television despite the fact that it doesn't even sell products to consumers. They want us to connect them with resonant and positive imagery of diversity, good will, and human fulfillment. It's the softest of soft sells.