Friday, March 9, 2007

Bling

This MetaFilter article mentions Bling H2O, an ultrapremium brand of water sold in bottles decorated with Swarovski crystals.

Bling H2o (official site)

Personally, I'm a bit put-off by the outrage that wells up over this idea. I buy things for packaging all the time. Isn't that the whole point of Fiji brand water? Or Captain Morgan's Pirate Bay Rum? Or for that matter, buying Aquafina instead of generic filtered water. I mean, rich people spend stupid money on stupid things all the time. So what?

What jumped out at me were the Swarovski crystals. I mean, what the heck are they? They're always mentioned as if it's an old-world luxury brand I should know about, like Rolls Royce. Not too far off, actually.

Swarovski crystal
(Wikipedia)

So... faceted leaded glass? That's a luxury item?

Again, rich people: stupid money on stupid things.

5 comments:

  1. I think there's a distinction between clever and conspicuously crass consumerism.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree. If you own Bling H2O, you're clever. If buy it...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sigh.

    "If you own the company that makes Bling H2O, you're clever. If you're a consumer who buys Bling H2O products..."

    ReplyDelete
  4. they (the crystals) are actually quite lovely and make beautiful jewelry. but on a water bottle? i don't think so. that's just silliness.

    ReplyDelete
  5. amelia, I like the idea of the crystals a lot better than the idea of diamonds in jewelry. I think it's the disposable nature of the decoration. And probably the value of the product itself vs. the value of the packaging.

    ReplyDelete