Gucci

Here are the most famous and beautiful jewelry advertisements ♦

What have been the best advertising campaigns regarding jewelry? Most, let’s face it, have little to remember: well-known faces dreamily flaunting a bracelet or necklace, models casting sensual glances as they caress diamond rings and earrings. Or, simply, the precious object and that’s it. But, fortunately, even for jewels the imagination of those who design advertising campaigns emerges from time to time. Starting with the famous slogan coined by De Beers: “A diamond is forever”, a campaign that dates back to 1947 by the copywriter Frances Gerty. A few but effective words that convinced Americans that diamonds are the symbol of love and commitment, that no other precious stone should be considered for an engagement ring. This was not the case before, there were no precise rules: rubies and sapphires were both usual choices. After the De Beers campaign, however, these are stones fell out of favor and now, about 60 years later, it is rare to spot an engagement ring without diamonds. Everything has changed.

The best of all

A campaign that has total effectiveness, like that of De Beers, is practically impossible today. Yet there are still successful campaigns thanks to the spirit, novelty and charm they can arouse. It is proof that jewelers could give a little more credit to the best advertisers. Let’s start with one of the many videos from the series «A diamond is forever». This is a short from 1996.

Using technology

Fortunately, there is no lack of those who use their imagination together with the weapons of technology. JCPenney, the third largest department store chain in the United States, launched an online video years ago promoting its diamond jewelry in a highly original way. In the clip, a man who gives his wife a vacuum cleaner for their anniversary is sent to some kind of kennel, a place of segregation where husbands who buy their wives bad gifts are forced to fold mountains of laundry. In the final scene, the man is shown a photograph: the solution is to give a necklace from JCPenney. Linked to this video is a site: bewareofthedoghouse.com, which allows inadequate men to be “imprisoned” in a virtual kennel. In 2009, the video campaign had over 14 million views on YouTube, and more than 7 million people visited the interactive site.

Liz Chatelain, a jewelry market research specialist at Mvi Marketing in California, believes the campaign has paid off: “JC Penney did a great job of getting more consumers to give jewelry,” she says. “Increasing the business to be divided is not only good for the advertiser, but also good for the industry.” Many other jewelers are realizing the potential of online advertising to help reach a wider audience among ‘digital natives’ who are less accessible than traditional print or television advertising.

Social messages

Cartier, for example, shocked the world by pulling out an advertising campaign for the Cartier product line on the social network MySpace, which was an industry leader years ago, only to be supplanted by Facebook. Until a decade ago, the idea of ​​advertising through social media seemed unthinkable for a luxury brand: today everyone is investing in social networks. But the panthére that comes to life from a jewel, in a video from 2012, cannot be forgotten about Cartier either.

In truth, even those who choose newspapers for their advertising could be a bit original. Like the Green Initiative campaign of July 2007, conceived by the couple Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons, which focused on the ecological theme and on helping Africa to promote Green Bracelets. The bracelets are made of malachite and rough diamonds and half of the profits from the sale went to the Diamond Empowerment Fund, an international non-profit organization that aims to raise money for education in Africa.

The bracelets have been spotted on the wrists of several celebrities. Equally famous was, at the time, the advertising campaign conducted by No Dirty Gold, an organization that wants to put an end to improper gold mining practices.

In 2006, the American association Oxfam and the Eearthworks initiative published a black and white ad in the New York Times featuring a heart-shaped gold medallion. Inside the jewel there was an image of a young, barefoot African boy shoveling garbage in a mine. The caption under the medallion reads: “There is nothing romantic about a toxic gold mine.” Sixteen jewelers in the US have been listed in the ad as “leaders” or “laggards,” based on their partnership with (or resistance to) the No Dirty Gold campaign for sustainably produced gold.

Celebrities

There is, however, the more traditional line of celebrities. Movie stars, sports heroes and leaders combined with gold and diamond jewelry. To be truly convincing, however, the celebrity must be consistent with the product they are testimonial of and, above all, tell a story. For example, years ago British jeweler Stephen Webster’s print advertising campaign chose a somewhat rebellious rock star, Christina Aguilera, as her muse in a series of Alfred Hitchcock-inspired images, where the singer plays a sexy girl.

Going back in time, another case of celebrity lent to jewelry, for the Italian maison Damiani, is that of Sharon Stone, who granted her face and a seductive look to advertise the creations of the Piedmontese brand. Note the indirect irony towards De Beers. The claim of the advertisement, in fact, reads: Damiani, a girl’s best friend, words that recall the famous definition for diamonds, of which we have spoken.

Wearing Damiani, Sharon poses as Eva in the Garden of Eden, as aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and as Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel. Gucci has instead created a video on the creation of the campaign for the Chiodo collection, in which the actress Clare Danes does the makeup wearing the jewels.

But there are many famous ambassadors for jewelry, for years Carla Bruni was the face of Bulgari, just as Cara Delevigne is for Dior fine jewelry, while Buccellati chose Beatrice Borromeo to add blue blood to her image.