One of the best things about Christmas being over is that we get a short reprieve from the onslaught of diamond commercials, at least until Valentine's Day. Every ad for diamonds seems to be based on a couple of awful assumptions.
1) Your wife or girlfriend can't possibly be expected to love you if you don't buy her diamonds.
2) If your husband or boyfriend isn't buying you diamonds, he probably doesn't really love you.
3) Women love sparkly things more than anything in the world.
4) What women like about getting engaged/married is not the whole "love" thing, it's the big sparkly diamond.
One of the worst offenders is KAY Jeweler's with their "every kiss begins with KAY" campaign. Only diamond jewelery will make a woman want to kiss you. If you buy her a non-diamond gift, get ready for a lot of smooch-free evenings!
You know, kids, it was nice of you to put all this time and effort into trying to make a special day for me, but diamonds! Now that's a real gift!
Then there's this ad, in which the woman is frightened by lightning and need shiny diamonds to calm her down. She's basically a parakeet in a tight sweater. Seriously, what grown woman is frightened by lightning? And needs a big strong dude to feel safe? If she was frightened by a burglar, that might make some sense, but how is the dude going to protect you from lightning? Which you don't need to be protected from because you're indoors. It's just ridiculous.
And then there's Jared. You may be lucky enough not to have Jared where you live, I never heard of them until I moved to Atlanta. But there campaign revolves around the phrase "He went to Jared!"
Oh, you've found the love of your life and you're getting married? Ho hum, zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh a bright shiny sparkly thing! Congratulations, you lucky girl!
On the other hand, if your fella didn't go to Jared, well, let's just say it's gonna be awfully lonely for him on that couch.
Because what's the point of having a husband if he isn't supplying you with pretty, shiny baubles?
And I haven't seen one of these DeBeers ads for a while, but as I recall the basic plot is the lady marries the guy, has kids with him, puts up with them for 25 long horrible years, then finally she earns the shiny diamonds. With very suggestive music in the background. And I know, it's Handel or whoever, but I've always thought that that part of "Water Music" or whatever it is sounds a lot like sex building to a climax. Sorry if I ruined it for you. If I made it better, you're welcome!
Every year they trot out these ads and every year they make me crazy.
Yeah, those ads are the worst. I did a post on my hatred of the Kay Jewelers commercials a while back. I've always felt if "Every kiss begins with Kay," dude is dating a golddigger or an actual prostitute.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand those ridiculous diamond commercials, which equate love with a chunk of compressed carbon.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Snoring Dog Studio's commentary on the subject?
http://snoringdogstudio.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/distract-%e2%80%98em-with-diamonds-this-christmas/
I hate those "He went to Jared" commercials with a passion. They're right up there with the "FreeCreditReport.com" ads with those hideous jingles.
ReplyDeleteThe Kay Jewelers ones are annoying too, though not as much as the Jared ones. The one that gets to me, though, is the "Storm" one. Not only do you have the pathetic woman who is afraid of a thunderstorm, but then she positively melts over a piece of jewelry. You can tell Mr. Man is going to get some, between doing his manly duty to protect her from the Big Bad Storm and buying her off with a bauble. Ugh.
Whem that story about Naomi Campbell taking blood diamonds from Liberian dictator Charles Taylor broke I heard a joke that sums up the way women feel about diamonds. "When Naomi Campbell was told that those diamond she was given were mined by children who have their arms cut off for disobedience, she looked at the reporter and asked, "Both arms?"
ReplyDeleteI know my contribution doesn't solve the problem but if I ever bought a diamond it would be a CANADIAN POLAR DIAMOND.
I hate those Jared commercials so much. They make me glad I'm gay.
ReplyDeleteI hate diamonds and their ads, but unfortunately I think that there is a good percentage of people (both men and women) who feel the same about them as the ones in the ads. Oh yes, and the Valentine's Day merch is already in the stores so get ready for the next attack of the diamond commercials.
ReplyDelete