Confused by El Conquistador

Somehow our name ended up on the mailing list for a magazine called Incentive. It's been coming for about 6 months now. It's one of those curious mail box mysteries...who put us on this list?

The purpose of the magazine is to encourage corporate big wigs to give incentive gifts for employee productivity. Mostly it's full of ads for gift cards, small electronics and resort get-a-ways. I usually flip quickly through the pages before dumping the lot in the recycling box. This month, however, a certain advertisement caught my eye. It was for a resort called El Conquistador.

The ad caught my eye for two reasons. First, it's totally hokey.

Who is this ad aiming at? I hardly think it's targeting a woman. If I were to plan an all-inclusive resort vacation, I'd steer clear El Conquistador simply on the basis of this ad.

I mean really. What woman rides a horse in a flimsy cotton cover up, with apparently no bra or swimsuit underneath, her long hair flowing in the breeze, a hibiscus stuck in her tangled locks, and her arm stretched out behind her, resting on the horse's rump, so that her back arches ever so slightly into a come-hither pose exposing the fleshiness of her breast?

I'd also like the highlight the fact that the woman is riding bareback.

The whole thing looks more like the cover of a video game that should be rated M for mature than an ad for an upscale, luxury resort.

The ad also caught my eye because my husband, on more than one occasion, has called himself my conquistador. Given the rant above, I'll leave you to determine how smoothly that goes over.



Of course I had to look up El Conquistador online. It's a posh Puerto Rican place. The cheapest room I could find started at over $400 a night.

Which brought me right back to the ad. I'd think, pulling in that kind of dough, that they'd have a better marketing scheme. I'm still scratching my head.

* Photos © El Conquistador.