Culture Code: LOVE = FALSE EXPECTATION

One of the most commercialized and marketing symbols of love in American culture is that of the diamond engagement ring. We are constantly exposed to billboards, magazine advertisements and commercials with catchy tag lines such as "a diamond is forever".

Raptille's Culture Code for LOVE is FALSE EXPECTATION. In our country, 50% of marriages end in divorce and maybe of us associate the word “love” with heartbreak or let-downs.

Here are some examples from the 2003 ad campaign by the Diamond Trading Co. that aimed to increase sales of engagement rings over the holiday. The ads are obviously targeting men to buy engagement rings or even just jewelry for the women in their lives. I think the ads are also meant to target women who want their boyfriends to propose or buy them jewelry, which plays on the “expectations” code.

 

This ad is insinuating that you, as a boyfriend, don’t deserve your woman and also sends a subtle message to woman that says “your relationship or boyfriend doesn’t live up to your or your friend’s standards, so he should buy you jewelry.”

 

This one also has an undertone of buying an engagement ring to prove something or to justify or reaffirm your relationship.

Both of these ads, as well as pretty much all of the ads in the campaign use the “FALSE EXPECTATIONS” Culture Code to sell their product. Buying their product is both a financial and personal commitment, so by using the idea of a false expectation or the idea that love “rarely reaches fulfillment”, they can persuade he idea of their product as a means to fix or enhance a relationship (Raptille, 41).