The image I have chosen comes from a DeBeers diamond ad. It popped up on Google images for me (http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2009/images/Diamond.jpg), but can be originally be found at debeers.com. Although many of us would choose a diamond ad to be strictly for women, this one is for men who want to sort of 1-up their relationship. I assume they are hammering out as many of these ads as possible for the upcoming Valentine’s holiday, thus why it is directed toward men. All men want for Valentine’s Day is a couple shirts or jeans or something along those lines. Valentine’s Day for women is all about the glitz and glam, and needs a lot more thought, i.e. money, put into it. I’d say the audience age group would have to be men between the age of 30 and 60 because that’s about the age you get settled in and can afford something like this and by 60 you will have probably grown out of that diamond buying stage. I couldn’t find any magazine links that this article is in, but I’d say it appears in GQ, Sports Illustrated, or Men’s Health.
The DeBeers ad has a solid black background with one picture (diamonds) and one sentence of words. The words are sprawled out in different sizes of huge bright white font that reads in all caps: “HEY, WHAT DO YOU KNOW, SHE THINKS YOU’RE FUNNY AGAIN.” Clearly DeBeers wants us to buy this or any set of beautiful diamonds that they have, knowing it will make our significant others that much happier with themselves and with us.
The first time I looked at this image it provoked an emotion of anger out of me because it says “Hey, what do you know, she thinks you’re funny again.” My reaction to it was “why the hell do I need to get my significant other a diamond for her to like me.” For the audience though, I think they are trying to boost your confidence and kindness on Valentine’s Day by displaying the perfect gift for your wife. It brings out humor because all men know (whether they like it or not) that they will do pretty much anything for their wife, and this is something that will make her happy. The cheesy humor is good for making a man feel safe knowing the he has given the best possible Valentine’s gift. The solid black background almost reminds me of a darkening cave, representing your days counting down to get the perfect gift. The bright words and diamonds are the light at the end of the tunnel, our talisman to success!
I first want to connect how I felt about this article with what Aristotle has said. My emotion in this case being anger. At first it doesn’t seem like his definition of anger: “an impulse, accompanied by pain, to a conspicuous revenge for a conspicuous slight directed without justification towards concerns oneself or towards what concerns one’s friends” (Book 2, Part 2). I definitely felt the impulse, anger towards why a wife needs diamonds in order to be happy, but the pain is a bit more difficult. If my pain can be defined as buying love through materialistic things, then that would define it accurately, but I also had the pain of wishing women didn’t care about these sorts of things. The part where this comparison goes awry is when Aristotle says “If this is a proper definition of anger, it must always be felt towards some particular individual. It must always be attended by a certain pleasure-that which arises from the expectation of revenge” (Book 2, Part 2). I don’t feel any anger towards a person, but more towards what this ad is using to display what it takes to reunite love. I’m not sure who I would take revenge on; the women who don’t find me funny until I present diamonds? DeBeers for making me feel like I must buy diamonds? Myself for actually wanting to buy diamonds now? Whoever is to blame I do not know, but I actually feel angrier writing this as I follow along with Aristotle. I guess he is the true master of persuasion.
In terms of connecting Aristotle to how the ad wants the audience to feel, I think his chapters on confidence and kindness are suiting. Aristotle says confidence is having “good sense, good moral character, and goodwill” (Book 2, Part 1). For me, enough is said right here because even though that ad is trying to say that a woman needs diamonds, it is also asking the question of whether or not you want to be the “perfect” husband. In this case the perfect husband should use his good sense, moral character, and goodwill to purchase the diamonds. In terms of kindness, Aristotle says “kindness is great if shown to one who is in great need, or who needs what is important and hard to get” (Book 2, Part 7). Now I don’t think anyone is ever in a great need of diamonds, but I do get the second part when he says it is “important and hard to get.” These diamonds are important because of the occasion, Valentine’s Day, and they are hard to get because well frankly, they are ridiculously expensive, which usually takes a chunk out of any man’s wallet.
DeBeers wants men to want to be loved by their wives more, and what other way then to purchase them a huge, flawless diamond? Who would’ve known that through a diamonds power, your woman will see you as funnier? DeBeers apparently, and through this ad they have shown that you cannot let your wife go without their beautiful selection on Valentine’s Day. I mean really, what kind of person would you be? DeBeers uses a carefully laid out strategy of making the audience feel like they must buy these diamonds or it will surely be the end to them! Either way, the ad is effective in producing the sense of need and want for what will end in an ecstatic wife.
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