Diamonds Are For Suckers…

Diamonds Are For Suckers…
A Girl’s Best Friend Revealed
(Marketing, Economy, Style)

San Francisco, CA, 10/13/08 – First of all, I just want to say, no offense to anyone getting married or anyone who has bought a diamond for themselves or someone else. A diamond’s strength and aesthetic qualities are very impressive, but have you ever thought about the reason why a diamond is the end on and be all when it comes to wedding rings? No? Well maybe that’s because you’re a fucking sucker and will go out and drop two months salary on a little rock just because you think you’re suppose to. Bottom line… it’s marketing at its best. For most of the 20th century, De Beers sold 85% to 90% of the diamonds mined worldwide. With this leverage, it could artificially keep diamond prices stable by matching its supply to world demand. Although, with competition on the rise, the way De Beers did business was simply not viable anymore. In the face of declining market share, De Beers began focusing on adding value to the diamonds already under its dominion through marketing and branding initiatives. In the late nineteen forties, De Beers hired an advertising agency to help increase its sale of diamonds. The agency, N.W. Ayer, developed an extremely successful campaign linking diamonds and romance. The campaign invented the slogan “A Diamond Is Forever,” meaning that a diamond is a never-ending sign of love. It also meant that a diamond would always keep its value. The company continues to use the slogan in its advertising more than fifty years later and reports say it has been used to advertise diamonds in at least twenty-nine languages. The advertising industry also recognized the huge success of the saying. In 2000, Advertising Age magazine named “A Diamond Is Forever” the best advertising slogan of the twentieth century. While De Beers has achieved its stronghold on impressionable fiancés everywhere, they have also indirectly caused the sought-after gemstone to become the driving force behind dictators and revolutionary entities, especially in Africa, using slave labor to mine blood diamonds to fund conflicts. A blood diamond (also called a converted diamond, conflict diamond, hot diamond or a war diamond) refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, invading army’s war efforts, or a warlord’s activity. A conflict-free diamond is a diamond whose profits are not used to fund wars and which is produced and mined under ethical conditions. Only diamonds that are certified and can be traced from the mine to the consumer are conflict-free diamonds. However, conflict diamonds are still being sold today into the international diamond market as clean. So when you’re out there at the mall about to throw down some scrill for your girl, remember that while you may be the man of her dreams, you’re also one gullible murderer.

Get Suckered or Go Home…
Scheme-On