Thursday, December 07, 2006

Rating The Blood Diamond Schwag

Last night, I went to the press "event" for the upcoming Liberal Guilt-a-thon Blood Diamond. But this is not a review of said movie. This is a review of the Blood Diamond schwag that I was given:



If you can't tell from the blurry, last-known-photograph-style picture (never use a digital camera before 8am), that would be a red, rubber bracelet with the words "Blood Diamond" stamped into into it. Stamped on to the other side, which I haven't bothered capture on film, are the words "Clean Diamond." Inside, it's got the web address for the Warner Bros./Amnesty International website that contains more cause-centric info. Next to that, there's the smug, proud "Made in USA" logo and also the Warner Bros. copyright mark, so they can sue anyone who tries to support the film's cause with a similar, red rubber bracelet. It smells like a pencil eraser (the bracelet, not the copyright mark [though I guess technically, since it's a part of the bracelet too, it does]).

It's fairly standard as far as methods for raising awareness are concerned, I guess, though it really doesn't hold a candle to the multi-hued ribbons from the 90's. Those things were all class and they didn't tug at your arm hairs. Wearing it on my wrist didn't seem to enlighten anyone during the subway ride home and even if did, it probably only reminded people about AIDS because of the color association. While I'm sure Warner Bros. isn't against reminding people about AIDS, I'm sure that that wasn't their intent with these bracelets. They've got a movie to promote, after all. Oh, and the cause, too.

My grade for the Blood Diamond awareness bracelet: C-

1 Comments:

Blogger noha said...

Interesting. I think there's an awful lot of these going around... the LiveStrong for cancer is the only one I've worn just because there aren't multiple yellows, so ppl actually know what cause you're behind with it... but yeah, when it's a film company, not a non-profit handing these out, you can't help but be a bit suspicious.

11:03 AM  

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