ABOUT WOMEN
Audacity of diamond companies is getting out of hand
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By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer
Have you heard about the bling-ring thing?
Or perhaps I should call it genius marketing.
Or maybe just a pathetic attempt to tell women how to spend their money.
Diamond companies are selling the idea that a right-hand ring symbolizes empowerment and independence, even a celebration of singlehood.
Whereas a diamond on the fourth digit of your left hand, you know what that means: BORING.
Who needs a man or an engagement ring when you have disposable income and can buy a rock for yourself?
One ad even says: "Your left hand says 'we,' your right hand says 'me.'" Another slogan is even worse: "Women of the world, raise your right hand!" Still worse: "Your left hand rocks the cradle, your right hand rules the world" and "Your left hand feeds the family, your right hand takes the cake." Um, which hand do I use to indicate the gag reflex?
Is this brilliant advertising or as disgusting as "reality" TV? Or both?
Whatever it is, the right-hand ring campaign is working. Even Wal-Mart is onto it, selling a $389 diamond rightie it even calls "Independence." Diamond giant De Beers is spending $4 million this year for glossy ads in magazines such as Vogue and InStyle touting the message that it's better to self-gift than to wait for Mr. Right.
This way, jewelers can reach a whole new demographic of single women with money without alienating the married women with money. All of them can buy themselves a diamond. And the men, they can still buy diamonds for their sweetheart's other hand.
Astute thinking or audacious advertising? Yep, it is both.
And is it my imagination, or are women eating it up? Celebrities including Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Naomi Campbell, Sarah Jessica Parker and Katie Couric have been caught right-handed flashing higher-end baubles. (Campbell's is a whopping 25 karats.)
And Destiny's Child has been singing about it with a tune called "Independent Woman" with lyrics that say: "Tell me what you think about me/I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings/Only ring your cell-y when I'm feelin' lonely."
I'm all for economic empowerment for women, but I'm not sure the bling finger is where it's at. I'm awed and repulsed by the whole thing.
In this attempt to win both our hands, diamond marketers are telling us this is about fashion and feminism, that wearing a diamond ring on your right hand is a feminist statement. Clever concept. I hope a woman thought of it.
Then again, maybe I don't.
Tanya Bricking Leach writes about relationships for The Advertiser. Reach her at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.
