Flood Insurance

Virginia is For Lovers” was created more than 50 years ago, and it’s become one of the most beloved and iconic slogans in the world. While it’s meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people over the years, one thing remains the same: LOVE.

"Virginia is for Lovers" on Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame

By popular vote, "Virginia is for Lovers" was inducted into the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame on September 21, 2009. The slogan was included in the Advertising Icon Museum alongside fellow 2009 inductees, the AOL Running Man, the Budweiser Clydesdales, and State Farm's "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There." This recognition came on the heels of Forbes.com tapping "Virginia is for Lovers" as one of the top ten tourism marketing campaigns of all time.

The Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame (located between 42nd and 50th streets in New York City) was created by Advertising Week, the largest gathering of advertising, media and marketing professionals in North America. The Grand Central Partnership and Advertising Week organizers have brought the Walk of Fame to life with a combination of bronze plaques and permanent lamppost street banners on Madison Avenue.

The Walk of Fame was created to celebrate great advertising icons and slogans, as well as recognize their business and role in brand building.

The Year was 1969

The timing was right in 1969 when the Virginia State Travel Service (now the Virginia Tourism Corporation) adopted what would become its world-renowned "Virginia is for Lovers" slogan. The Travel Service could not have known that the Yippies would become Yuppies — and later, Boomers — or that the Volkswagen microbus with the peace sign on the dashboard would give way to the station wagon as the official car of a generation, but they knew where the future was in tourism: a new generation of visitors.

A favorite book in 1969 was Erich Segal’s Love Story. Jacqueline Susann’s The Love Machine was a best seller. Henry Mancini scored with Love Theme from "Romeo and Juliet." The Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969 drew more than 300,000 young people for a weekend of peace, music and mud. Given the tenor of the times, the roll-out of "Virginia is For Lovers" appealed to younger consumers who were the market of the future.