My friend Lisa sent me the text from an ad she saw in The New York Times today. (Apparently, the live with less message brought yours truly to mind.)
Here’s the clincher though. The advertisement is for a product which is the last thing on earth I would ever buy.
Read through the ad and take a guess what it’s for:
HERE’S TO LESS.
Our lives are filled with things. We’re overwhelmed by possessions we own but do not treasure. Stuff we buy but never love. To be thrown away in weeks rather than passed down for generations.
Perhaps it will be different now. Perhaps now is an opportunity to reassess what really matters. After all, if everything you ever bought her disappeared overnight, what would she truly miss?
Did you guess?
- Charitable giving.
- Hemp zip-up jumpsuit in your choice of two sizes. (XXL and XXXL.)
- A set of finely bound plays by Shakespeare.
Sorry, fellow Non-Consumers.
The ad is for a honkin’ huge pair of diamond earrings.
I guess I’ve been going about the whole simple living thing wrong this whole time.
Which is so embarrassing.
Thank you De Beers. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go sell a kidney in order to afford the simple life.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I am sure I will go my entire life without a pair of diamond earrings dangling from my lobes. Is my life unfullfilled? Do I miss it? No. I prefer the 5$ pair of silver dangles I allowed my boys to buy me from the overstock store, next to thrift stores I look at these stores as “eating all the leftovers.”
I saw the add, too. I thought it a very strange way to market diamonds. It put me in mind of that magazine, “Real Simple.” All ads and glitz, but very little about simplicity. Peggy
Did you just NOW figure out you’re doing it all wrong according to the advertisers:)???
Diamonds? Never been interested. My husband and I are looking to buy land for ourselves–that will be my best present ever. We were hiking through a potential site yesterday. It had lots of room for a garden, grapes, fruit and nut trees, a chicken pen, and an isolated gazebo in the woods. Even after the bad drought we’ve had, there was still water in the creek that ran through a corner of the property. I could see myself living there in a small cabin, living off the land as much as possible.
I suppose it would be better to buy a pair of valuable earrings than to spend the equivalent amount of money on throw-away type stuff, but I would be ticked off at my husband if he ever spent that much money on earrings, of all things.
I’d rather have another Vollrath cookie sheet, quite honestly. lol
Even if I were to buy diamond earrings, (which is not my style, nor my ethics) I would buy a second hand pair.
Diamond jewelry is like a brand new car. The moment you take it “off the lot,” it loses value.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
The Non-Consumer Advocate
I think it has to do with the idea that –
If you are going to live on less, than buy quality stuff. IF you are going to buy quality that lasts, nothing last longer than diamonds… blah blah blah
I can see their viewpoint and I can tell they aren’t going for the black belt less-ees like us, they are going after the newbies.
Nope not my style either. I have very little jewelry and I like it that way. I actually emailed everyone I know and told them “NO GIFTS”. I would much rather get an IOU for one dinner, potluck, evening out, girls lunch etc, or a charitable donation. I’m more about spending time with friends than getting trinkets to display around the house that I get no use from other than having stuff to move and dust.
We’re currently simplifying our lives, clearing out the clutter so why would we want more stuff?
My husband gave me a pair of diamond earrings for my birthday in 1994, 6 months after we started dating. They cost him about $99. I was so shocked and touched that he bought them for me, because I knew how long and hard he had to work to buy them. I still wear them every day. The diamonds are tiny, of course. The jewelry store had a deal that you could bring them in at a later date and “trade up” (for more money, naturally) to a bigger pair. I told him I absolutely never wanted to do that. These are the earrings he could afford on a drug store 2nd assistant manager’s salary, and these are the ones I love. Quite a few of the “fancy moms” (as I call them) at my son’s former school wore huge diamonds like they think they are Paris Hilton or something. Whatever. I always think those are just what their husbands buy after they’ve cheated on their wives and are trying to make up!
it is very interesting that they are using the marketing strategy of “what truly matters in life” to sell their diamonds.
I am in 2 minds about this…
I have received a diamond necklace this year from my husband after we had navigated through some very troubled and difficult times over a 12-18month period.
He is not a “diamond necklace” kind of guy, and the only diamond I have ever received from him was on our wedding day! So it was and is a very special message from him. However, I still feel embarrassed when I wear it, as I am not a “showy” kind of person. Which makes it all the more special that he wanted to give that to me as a gift, as he is not good at expressing his emotions.
However, it is interesting that the marketers of these diamonds are using the “less is more” strategy, and trying to distance themselves from other “consumer goods” in order to keep up sales. So the anti-consumerism movement must be hitting their bottom line already??