If you've ever seen an ad for a jewelry store, you've probably heard them say phrases like diamonds are forever or diamonds are a girl's best friend and certainly when it comes to marriage proposals, nothing is more iconic than the proposer getting down on one knee and presenting a diamond engagement ring to their sweetheart. But why is that why are these shiny little rocks not only expensive but also so revered in our culture, what if I were to tell you that the whole thing was just one big marketing scam. Today, the writers are taking a deep dive into the jewelry industry, they answer the question of why do we care so much about diamonds.
What makes diamonds so special, after all?
A diamond is just a glittery little chunk of carbon and yet somehow this sparkly mineral has gone on to become the official symbol of matrimony as you know according to data gathered by jewelry industry research industry head Kenneth Gasman 75 percent of brides in the United States wear an engagement ring. It's such a ubiquitous part of the traditions surrounding marriage that hardly anyone ever seems to question it. Well, we hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you thought diamonds were made into the symbol of true love because they're rare and beautiful you'd be sadly mistaken, in fact despite the often outrageous price tag that comes attached to them diamonds aren't even particularly rare.
The truth as to why diamonds have gone on to become the official symbol of marriage is far more cynical in nature 'and' it has more to do with propaganda and sneaky marketing tactics than it has to do with love or beauty in his article of the February 1982 issue of the Atlantic journalist Edward J Epson wrote about the concept of the diamond invention in words that belief that diamonds are rare valuable and a must-have status symbol is entirely a work of fiction dreamed up by the diamond manufacturers as a way to drum up business the creation of the diamond invention. Which can actually be traced back to the origins of a corporation that just so happened to hold a total monopoly over the diamond industry until the early 21st century De Beers Group F seems research on the diamond market reaches back to South Africa in the 19th century in 1870 a British businessman stumbled across a massive diamond mine near South Africa's Orange River.
And quickly wasted no time raking in the gyms hand-over-fist but now that they were almost literally swimming in diamonds from their mining operation the British financed ears found themselves faced with a new dilemma how do they make the most of their discovery without flooding the market until now diamonds had been harvested in relatively small batches in India and Brazil accounting to only about a few pounds a year in terms of worldwide gem production. Diamonds did not have much intrinsic value on their own and the reason they had been deemed valuable at all was almost exclusively due to their sheer scarcity the discovery of the South African mines threatened to completely topple the assumed value of diamonds by shifting the balance of supply and demand and at best diamonds would become reclassified as only semi-precious gems so how were the financier is able to make use of their minds without completely devaluing the price of the diamonds they were harvesting by pretending the diamonds were still scarce of course in 1888 the major investors of the South African diamond mines merged their resources together forming a cartel known as De Beers consolidated mines limited.
DE's beers were formed in order to monopolize and control the production of diamonds while tricking consumers into believing that the diamonds they sold were still rare and valuable and at this point, I'm sure it would come as no surprise if we told you that they succeeded De Beers as a company took on a number of different pseudonyms around the world 'whether' was a diamond trading company. In England, the syndicate in Israel, or the diamond development corporation in Africa, all of these were simply De Beers in a clever disguise, all the while De Beers in its many forms perpetuated the illusion of diamonds as something rare enough to be worth. The inflated price tag and for most of the 20th century De Beers enjoyed a lofty position as the undisputed kings of the diamond industry, okay 'so' now you know why diamonds are so expensive.
But how did they become the symbol of marriage?
Today, while it might feel like the sentiment that diamonds are forever has been around forever, the widely accepted tradition of the diamond engagement ring has only been in popular practice for less than a century. In 1938 America was still in the throes of the Great Depression. At around this time diamonds were considered a luxurious and superfluous symbol of status reserved only for the extremely wealthy, after all with money being as tight as it was for the average Depression-era American. Why would anyone want to spend their hard-earned pay on some shiny rocks?
When that money could instead be put towards something more practical like a car or a washing machine, if De Beers wanted to keep the demand for diamonds high they needed to come up with a new marketing strategy and fast. So what new angle did they come up with to push those glittery carbon crystals, you guessed it, marriage. So much for money can't buy me love, huh, De Beers collaborated with a major American advertising agency in order to reinvent the public perception of diamonds. By making them into a symbol of romance, a massive marketing campaign was set into motion as diamond rings were pushed not only via radio, newspapers, and magazines. But also through celebrity endorsements and product placement in the newly emerged motion picture industry it worked, by 1941 diamond sales in the US had already shot up by 55 percent. In 1948 a copywriter for that American agency, coined the phrase a diamond is forever and the rest as they say three so there you have it how a group of British investors was able to turn a surplus of glittery stones in South Africa into one of the biggest and most lucrative advertising campaigns.
In all the history, and collectively tricked three-quarters of American newlyweds into buying their jewelry for the better part of a century. Well, these days De Beers has been pushed off its throne as they monopolize errs of the diamond industry presently only selling about 35% of the world's rough diamond production even, so the 131-year-old diamond cartel has successfully turned its overpriced rocks into an instantly recognizable symbol of not only wealth but also love and marital bliss and chances are the public perceptions of diamonds. As their go-to engagement gift, after all it's not the reason we expected, so what do you think about the diamond craze?
Nice
Good info
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