Anyway, the letters in the ads described how much of a great time these folks were having living in Aruba and what a great time the tourists have and how happy they are to meet all the tourists and they probably arrange pen pal programs all the time now or I don't know.
I guess it wasn't working all that well or perhaps Aruba realized that maybe advertising "friendly locals" to Bostonians was a bit of a stretch. The ads have returned but in an altered state: Now, each hand-written note tells you what AMAZING OFFERS (caps and emphasis theirs) you can get by visiting the official website.
How sad! I mean, okay, it was always obvious that the ads were hand-written by someone in PR (probably drafted in committee) and that the Nature Guide really doesn't doodle plants and animals all over his written correspondence, but geez, it wasn't so damn transparent. Now, instead of telling a story about teaching a tourist all their awesome windsurfing tricks, the kids now just tell you that you can find AWESOME DEALS over on the website.
Someone thought this was a good idea. I dunno. Maybe I just like my T ads with more narrative structure, or at least a little bof fri fleu.
