Kay Jewelers Adoption Advertisment
We’re watching Scott Pilgrim tonight when a Kay Jewelers commercial comes on… set in an adoption agency.
Because isn’t that what adoption is like? You just show up in an office and sit and wait until they bring in your perfectly wrapped child? Holding hands and exchanging jewelry? And uh… that pesky birth family that doesn’t factor into this commercial at all… don’t they deserve a Jane Seymour Open Heart necklace?
Just in case you were wondering, this is why your Aunt Jane says things like, “why don’t you just adopt?” Since, you know, it’s so damn easy for every member of the triad.
I know that every kiss begins with K… but “gobsmacked” begins with Gee-wasn’t-that-the-most-offensive-thing-I’ve-seen-in-a-while.
33 comments
I have Scott Pilgrim on when as I’m reading this. Haven’t seen the Kay’s commercial yet. It sounds just awful.
On the other hand, Scott Pilgrim is a good watch.
I bet everyone who’s paid for an adoption is dying to fork out more money for jewellery, too. I know I would be.
Boo. Can’t wait for this one to air during the party we’ll be attending. :/
And cue our friends turning to me to say, “So, any news? Any baby?”
This makes me so angry.
I don’t know how I ran across your blog, but you caught me in my tracks with this posting. OMG. I saw this yesterday too, and I couldn’t believe it. Clearly nobody involved in that commercial has ever been down any path close to adoption. You just show up to adopt your baby, and your husband makes the sweet gesture to get you jewelry. OK. Now I just have yet ANOTHER reason never to buy tacky Kay jewelry. (Since you don’t know me, my short story is that I tried for years to have children, mostly on my own as a single, and finally was fortunate enough to be successful and now we are done. If only I had seen this commercial years earlier, it could have been so much easier I guess!)
I saw it last night too. It was a moment of pure and utter disbelief. I know they thought they were being inclusive (orat least I hope that was the intent), but dear lord. The whole ad was just wrong. Now this will bring back the adoption questions again because look how easy they got a baby and money for expensive and ugly jewelry too!
Good Lord… aren’t they just too, too perfect?? :p :p :p
My husband and I have always made fun of Kay commercials for their open heart collection, this commercial is terrible!
Wow. As an adoptive mom, I find that commercial horrifying and reinforces so many inaccurate assumptions about adoption. And yes, where are the birth parents???
Just adding to the stero-type that it is SO easy to adopt and that every infertile should “just” do it. Oh the anger inside…
As an adoptive mom, and in an open adoption with our birth mother, and having had an awesome experience in the hospital with her (though I know everyone does not get that pleasure) this just makes me sick. You know who we bought a gift at the time of the adoption? Our birth mother, I bought her a necklace to keep locks of our daughter’s hair in… I had already been given the best gift. I didn’t need a necklace that looks like a butt! (Sorry, but we’ve long said this, and a few other anatomy parts too.) Ugh, way to undermine the whole process Kay and make it look like it really is as easy a drive through. Yuck.
Oh, good grief. Gobsmacked is right.
What Aerotropolitan Comitissa said. And Jess about the drive-through.
As a mother of a child surrendered to adoption, I find this horribly offensive. Not only has the child apparently been stripped of his (or her) biological identity since the biological parent(s) is/are nowhere in the picture, but Kay is adding to the lies that adoption is all about the adoptive parents (sorry, but it’s about the child involved, not either set of parents) and that one should celebrate the legal purchase of a child with the “gift” of jewelry (since there is no biological family in the picture, it will cause the casual observer to assume that the people pictured walked into an agency with cash in hand, had a sweet moment, and walked out of the agency with jewelry and baby in tow).
And…like Jess said, the jewelry looks like female anatomy parts. I would never wear anything from that “line.”
UGH! It might have been almost like that when my folks adopted my brother nearly 46 years ago through catholic charities and closed adoption but those were the “good ole days”.
I am utterly speechless. What do we call something that is beyond offensive as that is what this is. I’ve been staring out my window, shaking my head, and I simply have no words.
Ugh, so many competing thoughts, all which circle back to ‘who thought THIS was a good idea?’ and ‘couldn’t they have shown this to persons affected by adoption prior to green lighting it.
As an adult adoptee it makes me squeamish and embarrassed.
UGH, this is beyond offensive. As an adoptee and therapist who specializes in working with the adoption and foster care community, I’m baffled how society continues to perpetuate such an archaic portrayal of adoption.
hahahahaha, oh my goodness. And as if that big baby girl would just smile and coo at random stranger mom. Must be the necklace that saved the day.
Egads! And I thought ‘push presents’ were disgusting, this takes the cake. The only gift the Open Heart collection is good for is the ‘Thanks honey for getting a boob and ass job” present.
Yuck yuck yuck. What a bunch of idiots. I’ll never shop there.
I am going to create my own commercial and it will end with the birthmother collapsing on the hospital bed, sobbing with grief because she just physically handed her baby over to the adoptive mom. The adoptive mom will be wheeled out in a wheel chair carrying the baby and cursing everyone who has ever said “why don’t you just adopt?”. (Based on my personal and true story).
As consumers, our only path is to direct our concerns re: advertising to the company responsible. I can’t not act. So, in doing some research I found that Kay Jewelers is one of the brands operating in the US of Sterling Jewelers which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Signet Jewelers. Mark Light, 49, is the President & CEO of Sterling.
I live chatted with a very friendly customer service rep at Kay to get his contact info. Correspondence should be addressed:
Mr. Mark Light
President & CEO
Sterling Jewelers
PO Box 3680
Akron, Ohio 44309
While chatting with her, I found an email address for him, mlight[at]jewels.com. Mel, I would send him this post.
Comments can also be directed to Jane Seymour through her publicist:
SUSAN MADORE
Guttman Associates
118 S Beverly Drive #201
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
310.246.4600
310.246.4601 – fax
Email: Susan@guttmanpr.com
Oh my goodness. This is so absurd. I love how adoption is painted so perfectly and without any PAIN! What about the pain that those parents felt in the infertility and the waiting? What about the hours and hours and hours of paperwork? What about the GRIEF of the birth family and the inevitable GRIEF that the adoptive family will feel too? I am pro adoption but I am not pro ignorance or pro painting adoption in that kind of a light. That is a lie and it is so wrong on so many levels.
I didn’t see this commercial until late last night, and I wish I hadn’t. I felt sick after watching it. It’s a gross misrepresentation of what actually happens for SO many of us on the day we become parents through adoption, and (more importantly) completely dismissive and disrespectful toward birth parents. But, as I wrote in my own post about this topic, I guess the truth wouldn’t have made as good of an advertisement, would it?
Once again, Kay proves they can manipulate any human relationship for the sake of a buck. Married couples, children and mothers, engagements, etc. Adoption is so complex, how can you make a foofy commercial out of it?
Okay, I’m going to go ahead and be the dissenting opinion. First, I fully acknowledge all of the points made about adoption being about the child, rather than the adoptive parents, and that the biological families should be acknowledged. Also, I have always hated the open heart collection because it’s ugly.
However. It is a commercial whose purpose is to sell jewelry. Its purpose is not to educate the public on adoption processes, the intricate relationships of the adoptive and biological families, or the social consequences of adoption. I would challenge any of you to come up with a 30 second commercial that could adequately express all the points that were raised. You couldn’t. So to criticize a JEWELRY commercial that the complex dimensions of adoption weren’t fully given due, is intellectual hypocrisy.
Yuck. I haven’t seen it but am glad I haven’t.
Christine, No one is asking Kay Jewelers to speak to the complexities of adoption. In fact, we’d rather they stay out of the fray altogether.
The commercial is in bad taste–plain and simple.
Yes, because everyone knows all adoptions begin and end with the handing over of a warm bundle of joy. How unutterably, gobsmackingly awful.
OMG, had I known that all I had to do was go to an adoption agency who had birthmothers popping out babies in the back – man, wat a timesaver! The funny thing is that I went to a jewellery store to find a necklace for both me and the birthmother to symbolize our eternal connection. Since I was in the States, man, I hope it wasn’t Kay Jeweller’s. Please I hope not. I am never shopping there.
I went to the Kay facebook page to register my distaste for the commercial and was told I deserved a kick to the head, and to “get over it”! There is so much ignorance out there about adoption trauma, for all members of the triad and this commercial just perpetuates that. Very sad (and disturbing that there are people who clearly have no understanding of the complexities surrounding adoption), latch on to the fairy tale and feel compelled to defend the warm fuzzy myth.
I’m sorry, while I agree this is an idiot ad and totally unrealistic portrayal of adoption, really? With the outrage? Over THIS? Can you find ANY Kay Jewelers commercials that are NOT obnoxiously saccharine, unrealistic charicatures? They are all the worst. It’s Kay Jewelers. Their commercials are literally the worst thing about November through February.
Oh my God people!! A bunch of hypacrites(sp)!! What about those baby’s deserted by their parents. Crack baby’s, baby’s left on hospital and police doorstep!! Unwed mothers are not the only ones who suffer!! Madonna,Sandra Bullock, Kathryn Heigel and many others adopt with their wealth and advertise and everyone is like”Awee how cute….” Think about it!!
As a silversmith & adoptee the commercial really urked me. So here adoptees & mothers of loss… I give you the real Adoption Pendant. https://www.etsy.com/shop/TracysGemShop?section_id=15001334&ref=shopsection_leftnav_2