by Eddie Deezen
A guy giving his girlfriend a diamond engagement ring would seem to
us to be a intrinsic part of America and Americana. It is a time-honored
American tradition, like watching television, going to McDonald's for
lunch, kids riding bikes, or beer and hot dogs at the ballgame. And it
is, but it's not quite as old as you might imagine.
While
engagement rings have been around for centuries, diamonds are a fairly
late addition to the party. For many years, there just weren't that many
diamonds on the world market, so diamond engagement rings were pretty
rare.
The
rock Archduke Maximilian of Austria gave Mary of Burgundy in 1477 was a
rare exception, creating a huge buzz around the globe. Despite that
high-profile ring, things stayed pretty quiet on the diamond front until
the late 19th century.
As recently as the late 19th century,
some American women received thimbles as signs of their engagement.
After the wedding, they would cut the bottom off the thimble and bride
would wear it as a ring. In England, one contemporary practice involved
the man and the woman breaking a piece of gold or silver and each
keeping half. Then they'd drink a glass of wine and the engagement would
be on.
In the 1870's, miners began discovering huge veins of
diamonds in South Africa, and ice started flowing onto the world market.
Diamonds went from being a scarce gem to a fairly common commodity.
This, of course, was bad news for anyone who had diamonds and wanted to
make as much dough as possible. The diamond mine owners knew they'd have
to get clever to get rich. And it didn't take long for these gentlemen
to come upon a plan.
In
1888, several major South African mines merged together to found "De
Beers Consolidated Mines.” This merger created a cartel that could
effectively control the flow of diamonds from South Africa onto the
world markets. As diamonds became scarcer they grew more valuable, and
their popularity as a gem in engagement rings increased too.
Okay,
this explains how diamonds rose in price and created an illusion of
scarcity. But how did diamonds become such an integral part of the
marriage process? Depending on your point of view, you can either thank
or curse De Beers for this too. While many of us may think of the
diamond engagement ring as an ancient "time-honored tradition,” it
really is just the end result of a fairly recent (and brilliant)
marketing plan used by De Beers in the late 1930's.
In
1938, De Beers executives were in a tight spot. Diamond prices and
demand had been on a steady decline since 1919. The tanking economy had
caused most wedding-minded men to give their betrothed ladies modest
engagement rings that included intricate metalwork rather than fancy
gems. De Beers and the cartel needed a way to jump start its revenues.
De
Beers approached New York ad agency N.W. Ayer and asked for a marketing
campaign designed to convince Americans they desperately needed
diamonds. The campaign they came up with was definitely one of the
cleverest and most effective in advertising history.
N.W. Ayer
started a multi-pronged attack that completely revolutionized Americans'
view of diamonds. The agency got Hollywood's biggest stars to wear
diamonds and encouraged fashion designers to talk up diamond rings as an
emerging trend. The plan worked beautifully. In the first three years
of the campaign, diamond sales shot up by over 50%.
While these
results were both successful and lucrative, the "masterstroke" had yet
to take place. In 1947, an Ayer copywriter named Frances Gerety penned
the slogan "a diamond is forever.”
This
apparently simple four-word catchphrase caught on with the public like
wildfire. It is so popular, it is still used as the main catchphrase of
De Beers diamonds to this day, over 60 years later. It is, without
question, one of the most successful slogans in the long and storied
history of advertising.
The slogan helped to underscore a diamond
as an unbreakable, eternal symbol of love. Future brides loved the
romantic timelessness of the phrase. Sales of diamond engagement rings
shot through the roof.
Within 20 years, 80% of American brides
were sporting rocks. Diamond engagement rings quickly became an accepted
custom. And receiving a diamond engagement ring (and/or, of course, a
diamond wedding ring) remains one of the happiest, most memorable days
in most women's lives.
And
since I am not a woman, but I know plenty of women, I will omit any
commentary on the happiness level of the years following the reception
of their respective rings.
