Rhetorical Analysis Walgreens a Place Called Perfect

WALGREENS

Rhetorical Analysis: Walgreens, a Place Called Perfect

Walgreens: Advertising analysis

Increasingly, in an era of 'big box' stores like Wal-Mart and Costco, pharmacies are seen as obsolete. To counteract this perception and to give reasons for customers to shop at their store, Walgreens stresses its convenience in comparison to its major competitors. In its 2007 "Perfect USA" series of advertisements, Walgreens shows an idealistic portrait of a Norman Rockwell-esque landscape and lists a long litany of 'perfect' aspects of the town, in which everything is easy and planned before the holiday. Then a voice-over proclaims: "Because we don't live anywhere near Perfect, there is a Walgreens to provide everything needed in the real world." This underscores the fact that a consumer can run to Walgreen's to purchase a last minute gift or to buy some cold medication even in the middle of the night. As a 24-hour pharmacy, Walgreens promises ease of shopping that few other stores can. Yet by superimposing its name upon such a bucolic scene of 'Perfect, USA,' Walgreens also suggests that it still believes in those old-fashioned family values, even if the town is not quite 'perfect.'

The music in the background is haunting, almost mysterious, underlining the never-never land quality of the visions of happy children and parents in the advertisement, complete with snow globe-style snow. It evokes a more positive era that never really existed in the past. It acknowledges people's longing for such perfection, but also provides reassurance that in the absence of such an idealistic world, Walgreens is there to make up for our harried lives, in which we must frequently shop in the middle of the night, forget to pick up milk on the way home, or our doctor must call in a midnight prescription for a sick child. The advertisement evokes innocence, while also stresses that the fact that such an innocent, pure place is fictional means it is 'okay' to be an imperfect person who buys holiday items at a drugstore.