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The Skinny on Right-hand Rings
A friend of mine recently expressed some concern over Kay Jewelers' current ad campaign for women's right hand diamond rings. The basic ad concept runs something like this: Your left hand likes evenings at home. Your right hand loves a night out. Your left hand reads stories before bed. Your right hand lives a story worth reading. Women of the world, raise your right hand. The general gist of her concerns about the campaign (note: this is an industry-wide campaign, not just Kay) was that it stereotypes and denigrates the traditional values of the left-hand ring and its cultural associations. I used to get a monthly jewelry industry mag that dealt with the retail diamond jewelry industry. I have no idea how I got signed up for it, but it was pretty interesting, and this was right around the time the right-hand ring thing got big. I haven't seen the commercials, so I don't know how easy they are to misinterpret, but I might be able to give a little insight into what's going on here. From what I read in the mags, the concept isn't meant to denigrate marriage at all. Buying an expensive ring for the right hand is a major cultural tradition, and 99% of the time it's been a male buying for a female. Women don't traditionally buy jewelry for themselves like this. (Of course there are exceptions - we're talking general trends.) However, in the past decade, more and more women - for whatever reasons - have been buying nice jewelry for themselves. The industry sees this as a major emerging market. There are bracelets and necklaces and earrings, of course, but many of these stores focus on the ring, and if they can make it culturally acceptable for women to buy rings for themselves, then they can capitalize on it. (For those who don't think the jewelry industry changes culture, look up "diamond history" and "De Beers" sometime.) Women who might buy their own jewelry aren't generally buying rings for the left hand, since that area is still culturally reserved for engagement and wedding rings. That leaves the right hand, hence the "right hand ring" campaign. Now, back to the commercials. They're not saying "traditional life sucks, and this is so much better." They're saying "look, here are these traditions, and they're good. But it's okay to buy jewelry for yourself, too, because you're strong and beautiful and so on and you should buy from us." It's their way of trying to transition from a culture where only men buy women jewelry, to one where men buy women jewelry and women buy themselves jewelry. (Although it's interesting that Kay's website says nothing on its front page about the right hand ring, and you have to hunt around to get to them. If I were running a multi-million dollar ad campaign I wouldn't be hiding the light of easy profit under a bushel. Oh well, it's their dollar.) I was flipping through the May 2006 issue of Vanity Fair this evening and there's a full-page Right Hand Ring ad in there. It's not branded to a specific chain, though, just a general industry ad (think "Got Milk?"). Generous Gems has a party line explanation at the link as well. Back to Articles and Tips |