Lowering rings with diamonds are given in films and books, and the phrase "Diamonds are the best friends of the girls"It seems that it was always. Many are sure that from time immemorial the proposal has been made using a diamond ring. But there is another version: engagement rings with diamonds found their popularity only in the 20th century thanks to the de Beers advertising campaign. We checked whether this is really so.

“We were all circled around a finger, forcing us to believe: in order to engage in, you need a diamond”, “We buy engagement rings because a company that produces diamonds wanted it” - such headlines They have English -language articles telling the history of the popularity of engagement rings with diamonds. The authors of the articles say: diamonds became popular only thanks to the advertising campaign of the mid -20th century, and the phrase “A Diamond is Forever” (“Diamond Forever”) invented the advertisers so that no one would resold the diamonds and stones do not fall in price.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the tradition of making a proposal using the ring was already quite common, but for a long time stones Could be any. For example, Prince Albert Give me The queen of Victoria for the engagement in 1840, a ring with an emerald that resembles a snake in shape. Were popular and other Stones - rubies or sapphires.

And although countsthat one of the first engagement rings in the history of precious stone was still with a diamond (with his help made a proposal by the Austrian Maximilian in 1477), until the end of the 19th century, the diamonds were rather rare stones, and their production was not very massive. Diamonds then found mainly in India and Brazil, mining per year reached only a few pounds. However, in 1870, a giant copy of diamonds was discovered in South Africa, and now they could be mined in tons. For British investors invested in production, immediately arose Threat: if diamonds will flood the market in such quantities, they will simply lose in price.

Later, in 1982, American journalist Edward Epstein Reconstructed The story that took place at this time in the diamond market. Diamonds united and created the company De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. (now known as De Beers), having received an almost complete monopoly on the production of diamonds and prices for them, and began to work in different countries under different names. So far, the value of precious metals, such as gold or silver, depended on economic conditions and the market, the diamonds continued to gradually grow in price. By 1938, diamonds also became a fairly popular stone for engagement rings. Although, according to BBC, then only 10% of the brides Received Rings with diamonds.

A 1960 de beers ad in *Reader's Digest* (Sensailan/Flickr)

All changed the great depression in the United States. Demand for diamonds is strong fell. Although without depression, demand fell all over the world, because the diamonds were an expensive product that did not have practical value, and their purchase began to be considered a meaningless gesture of wealth. But the fall of the American market was an even more serious threat. In Europe, diamonds were less popular - in Germany, Austria and Spain, the tradition of giving engagement rings was weaker, in England and France they were considered objects of aristocratic luxury, and besides, the war was brewing there. Therefore, the American market, which then accounted for about three quarters of diamond sales (although it was mainly small stones), became For De Beers priority.

And then De Beers turned to the American advertising agency N.W. Ayer, so that the Americans again wanted to buy engagement rings with diamonds. The agency needed to figure out how to sell stones, the value of which was already greatly exaggerated, stones that the Americans did not want to buy and could not really afford.

Having studied the diamond market in the USA, N.W. Ayer decided that the most successful strategy would concentrate on the engagement rings. The agency suggested romanticizing diamonds: the larger the diamond, the more pure and serious love he will symbolize. Men who bought rings had to choose them based on this logic, and women - to start thinking that it was the diamond that is an integral part of the engagement.

Agency start Promoting diamonds through new media - mainly through cinema and cinemas. Photoshoots, conversations on radio, publications in newspapers and magazines, lectures on diamonds in schools, and even planned to attract a British royal family to the campaign were also used. During the campaign on the pages of magazines, engaged celebrities were told about diamonds, they were worn by actresses on film screens and social events.

But the campaign really took off in 1947 with the slogan “A Diamond Is Forever”. His I came up with Copyright N.W. Ayer Mary Francis Gereti. Although it should be known from the chemistry course that diamonds may well be damaged, the idea of eternity in conjunction with ideas about the romantic love that the marriage promises was very successful. In the same year, the phrase became the official syllable of De Beers.

This slogan seemed to be hinting: if you buy a diamond, eternal love awaits you. And if not, then there will be no eternal love. Already in 1951, reporting on his work, Ayer It wrote De Beers: "Jewelers now tell us:" The girl is not engaged until she has a diamond engagement ring. " In the same year, eight out of ten American brides received an engagement ring with a diamond.

Later a successful advertising campaign I became spread around the world, adjusting to new conditions. For example, in Japan, engagement rings with diamonds were promoted as a well -established Western tradition. And that It worked: Japan is still one of the largest markets for decorations with diamonds.

Although the slogan itself was invented by N.W. Ayer in order to increase the demand for diamonds in the United States, subsequently idea The fact that rings with diamonds are transmitted from generation to generation could be used so that the market is not overflowing with resold products. Otherwise, the statement that engagement rings with diamonds became popular thanks to the de Beers advertising campaign, mostly true. The last role was played by the fact that at the beginning of the formation of this tradition, De Beers was the main player in the market (although now this is not so), which had an almost unlimited monopoly on the establishment of prices and regulation of the demand for diamonds.