Fewer, Better Things

Our lives are full of things. Disposable distractions,

Stuff you buy but do not cherish, own yet never love.

Thrown away in weeks, rather than passed down for generations.

Perhaps things will be different now. 

Wiser choices made with greater care.

After all, if the fewer things you own always excite you,

Would you really miss the many that never could?

- The De Beers Family of Companies

Just in time for Christmas, the world's largest diamond producer, De Beers, is doubling its U.S. advertizing budget. And one totally great thing is that they're going to re-run that "Hands" ad, which was, they say, "the most enjoyable & persuasive television commercial EVER."

No half-measures from these lads. "The ad blitz is expected to reach 97 million U.S. consumers, or nearly half the adult population, at least 6 times each over the holday season." Whoo-hoo! That's bringing out the big drill bits. And it'll be "Backed by a powerful & targeted combination of national & local television." Which, in turn, will be "Backed by the highest levels of print media EVER, including 128 full-page color insertions in the New York Times, LA Times & Wall Street Journal." And that backed by the same in "Magazines of authority and stature, such as The New Yorker, Fortune, Forbes, The Economist, Time, Newsweek, Business Week." And all of this "synergistically linked with a highly-targeted online campaign covering rich media, e-mail and search engines." And no way they're forgetting their "premium online partners."

So you all can stop worrying about De Beers, and the hard economic times they're facing. They're big boys. Pros. They've done their polling & consumer & focus group homework. Which says - GREAT NEWS... FOR DE BEERS! - that 46% of Americans who already own diamonds say they want more. 

Let's say that again, shall we? THEY WANT MORE! 

Well... ME TOO! Right now, I'm checking out their...

Marie-Antoinette Yellow Cushion Ring!

Damn! 

This thing is so SMOKIN' hot, 

it deserves 24 point font!

As you can tell, I'm pretty excited, just from that. But I think what pushed me over the top was that they're not just bringing back the "Hands" ad, they're FRESHENING IT UP! By playing "Stand By Me" in the background. That classic song from 1961, by Ben E. King.

About the only thing that could have made me happier would be if they'd disinterred John Lennon himself, and gotten him to sing it. I love John's version. If only they'd added that last little bit of creativity. Maybe they'll read this. 'Cause I'd be SO pumped if they could, like, do something with lip-synching & PhotoShop & stuff to make it look like his bare skull & empty jaws were singing.

I know I'm probably blowing the opportunity to make big money as a creative, but here's an old video that they've probably overlooked. Pretty easy to imagine the new ad based on this. Just airbrush out the stuff that's in the way. The stuff that passes. 

Like flesh.

LENNON VIDEO - STAND BY ME (1).

Awwww, I should stop clownin'. This post wasn't really intended as an attack on De Beers. Or on Diamonds. Or even on that whole "Blood Diamond" side of things. So I'm not gonna go on & on, mentioning stuff like the U.S. buys $30 billion worth of diamonds every year. 'Cause it would be totally churlish of me to suggest that you compare that amount, $30 billion, to the cost of the proposed Big 3 bail-out. And a few million workers. So I'm not gonna do that. I'm more disciplined than that now.

What I really wanted (really, really) was for each of us to just take a moment, and look at what their ads are saying. Take that line, "Perhaps things will be different now."

Perhaps. 

Or perhaps, they'll drill down so deep into our skulls that they can reach in & extract our spine. Spines having become a vestigial organ and all. 

Sorry. Slipped again.

Maybe, let's look at these, their new Top 3 slogans. 

"Fewer, Better Things."

              "Here Today, Here Tomorrow."

                                     "Here's To Less."

Sounds like De Beers is trying to tell us something. About how things are. In the economy. And about what we're thinking. What we're thinking about doing. 

And then, how they can take advantage of that. I'm not being bitter here, just sometimes when I hear "diamonds," I think of Mr. Dylan, and those lyrics he wrote. You know, in Napoleon In Rags. They pretty much reflect my mood some days. Maybe a tad bitter.

Princess on the steeple & all the pretty people

They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made

Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts & things

But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe.

How does it feel

To be on your own

With no direction home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?

Taken as a whole, I don't think I'm bitter. Really. What I originally wanted was for us to just have a chance to think about that little poem that they wrote for us. The one up top. And think about... I donno... how it works for us. The stuff we buy... but don't really love. Things that last for weeks, while forgetting whole generations. Having fewer things. And how maybe... things will be different now.

So. To help us all along, here's a song from Joel. Give it a listen while you meditate on that De Beers poem up top. Joel's a guy from down the road. In Nova Scotia. Where we wear shirts like this. Even when Grunge is long gone. And where we go into the woods & sing. A lot. Which is nice, 'cause then you get to wake up by a lake. All in all, nice. Not Marie-Antoinette Yellow Cushion Ring nice, but still. Nice. 

You can even sing along, while you read the link below.

JOEL PLASKETT - HAPPEN NOW

Update. The Old Grouch placed a comment from a recent essay by Bruce Sterling. Which gets at what this blog does, only a whole lot better. Ok, infinitely better. Which would normally be a bummer, except that Sterling's an Earthling, and a genius. Skip my next 8 posts, and read it. And play the Joel Plaskett vid. 

And thanks Old Grouch. I needed that.