“Today” Show Contest a Success for Ethical Origin Jewelry
Like so many of our customers and supporters, we awoke this morning eager to hear the latest voting results in the “Today” show’s wedding series. A week ago, Brilliant Earth was one of four jewelers selected to participate in the series, in which the public is voting on the details of a wedding for Missouri natives Melissa McMillin and Jeremy Gebhart. Our selection marks the first time in the 11-year history of the “Today” show’s wedding series that a “green” jeweler has been chosen to participate and represents an important step forward for jewelry with ethical, eco-friendly origins.
The past week has been amazing. Beginning last Wednesday and continuing through yesterday, people all across the country had a chance to vote on wedding rings for Melissa and Jeremy, either through the “Today” show’s Facebook page or through text messaging. As the voting took place, we witnessed an outpouring of enthusiasm for our dedication to ethical sourcing and for the beauty of our jewelry. We submitted two of our finest rings for the contest: our gorgeous Flora Ring, an intricately detailed platinum ring with a design featuring diamond-accented leaves and buds; and our 5mm Milgrain Wedding Ring, a handsome platinum ring with milgrain detailing along the edges. Like all of our rings, these rings are made from recycled metals and conflict-free, ethical origin gemstones.
Towards the end of this morning’s show, host Matt Lauer reviewed the companies selected for the contest, including Brilliant Earth, before it was announced that two beautiful wedding rings from celebrity jeweler Neil Lane had received the highest number of votes. Although we wish that the results had been different, it would be mistaken for us to conclude that our participation in the contest was anything other than a huge, huge success. Lauer noted before the announcement that more than 150,000 people had voted. “Unbelievable, I never thought it would be that much,” Melissa replied, echoing our own astonishment.
Our participation in the series has introduced thousands of people to Brilliant Earth and demonstrated widespread acceptance of the idea that jewelry should not cause harm to either people or the environment. Five years after our founding in 2005, this experience also confirms our position as a leading provider of eco-friendly, ethical origin jewelry. We were proud to read the description of Brilliant Earth that the “Today” show has provided on its Facebook page: “Brilliant Earth is the line in eco-conscious fine jewelry . . . .”
Most of all, we are grateful to the many people who voted for us and expressed excitement about our participation. We heard your enthusiasm in chat rooms, on web sites, and in your conversations with our staff. With your help, we will continue channeling that excitement into making the finest ethical origin jewelry available, into pressuring the jewelry industry into making necessary reforms, and into building a better future for people in resource-rich developing countries.
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