Diamonds Are a Scam: How Marketing Fooled the World

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Diamonds are not forever. And I’ve always known this. Yeah, again, my wife didn’t like this one. Again, I shared with her this information because we’ve argued about this from time to time. She likes diamond jewelry. never understood it. I mean, I like nicely designed jewelry, stuff like that. But you know, that whole thing out there are diamonds. It’s a lifetime. It’s a great investment. No, it’s not.

It’s a manipulated scam. Yeah, always has been was a great James Bond movie, though. Anyway, anyway, if you want to take a look at the diamond price index, go back. Let’s go back to 2000. Let’s go back to 2000 because that’s well, actually, I bought it in 1999. I bought my wife her engagement ring.

Oh, three months. What was that? Remember the advertisement, the three month salary thing? Anyway, yeah, it’s worth. Yeah, we’re down. Yeah, you did that about 30, 40 percent. On that diamond since that period of time. Now, there’s some other reasons behind that. We have the lab, the lab diamonds. This was this was another hilarious conversation.

with my wife where she claimed she claims that I can tell the difference between a real run and a lab one. I’m like. No, can’t. You think you can, but you can’t. Jewelers can’t. I mean, that’s why they have to they have to actually put like little serial numbers and whatnot in the fake ones to tell the difference. They’re that good. They’re that good. And I remember when this was kind of starting up, they had it like.

There was a plant or a factory, whatever. And those were colored diamonds. This was back in like 2006, 2007. But now, yeah, the fake ones everywhere. Anyway, where did this come, where the whole diamond thing come from? We’re gonna do it, we’re gonna share your story. We’re share your story, okay? The diamond engagement ring was invented.

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by an advertising agency. Damn straight. Dom Draper, madman, invented the whole idea of a diamond engagement ring. It was in 1947. Before that period of time, only one in 10 American brides got one. Who was behind it? De Beers. De Beers. De Beers was worth almost $10 billion three years ago. They’re worth 2.2.

billion today and they’re trying to sell themselves. They’re trying to sell themselves. 1940 diamonds were a luxury for the rich. Nobody proposed with one unless they had serious money. De Beers had a warehouse full of diamonds and no customers. So they hired NW Iyer, an ad firm out of Philadelphia, a copywriter named Francis Garrity.

came up with four words. A diamond is forever. NWI are they actually paid Hollywood studios to write up diamond proposals into movie scripts. They planted stories and gossip columns about which rock some actress just got. They invented the two months, it’s two months salary, two months salary rule, the idea that a man should spend two months of income on a ring.

None of None of that existed before that agency came up with that. It’s can it’s extraordinary. It really is what we human beings fall for. But anyway, by the nineteen nineties, eight out of 10 American brides wore diamond engagement rings. Then the beers did it in Japan, going from five percent to 60 percent in 14 years.

advertising aids called it the greatest advertising slogan of the 20th century. Now, it’s all it’s all trick. Okay, it’s all an illusion. Make diamonds seem rare. I again, I tried to explain this to my wife on many occasions. And yeah, it was an exercise in futility.

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De Beers controlled most of the world’s supply, but they only released a small amount each year. So it was one big fat artificial shortage that kept the prices up. again, and the forever in the slogan is, again, nobody resells their diamond, the supply sells tight and prices stay up. Then we have Lab

grown diamonds. You can grow grow a diamond in a lab. Should I should probably forward this podcast to my wife later on. I’m gonna get myself in trouble. I know if that’s such a good idea. Anyway, you can now grow a diamond in a lab that is the same thing. Adam for Adam, as one pulled out of the ground costs 80 to 85 % less.

And 2019 only 6 % of engagement rings in America had a lab-grown stone. By 2025, that number was 61%.

People are buying bigger rings, 1.9 carats on average compared to 1.6 for mind and keeping the savings. De Beers in 2018 saw it coming. They launched their own lab grown jewelry brand called Lightbox priced at $800 per carat. The idea was to make lab grown look like cheap costume jewelry so people would still pay a premium for real diamonds. Prices tank 90 % anyway.

By 2025, American grocery stores were selling lab grown diamond rings for 200 bucks. De Beers shut down lightbox last May. Yep, they’ve lost $7 billion in value over the past three years. Not to mention the fact that they have $2 billion worth of diamonds sitting in storage.

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again.

You have to think about this for the power. So I love that show Mad Men. The greatest ad campaign ever.

Basically convinced, convinced the entire planet that a carbon crystal was worth two months of your salary. Watchdog on woolstreet.com.