Ep. 35 Diamonds: How the Diamond Industry Tricked Us Into the Greatest Marketing Scam of All Time

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“A diamond is forever,” has gone down in history as one of the greatest advertising slogans of all time. It has appeared in every single De Beers diamond ad since 1948 and was ranked the number one slogan of the century by AdAge marketing journal in 1999. But, did you know, the company that hired Frances’ ad agency to come up with this slogan, De Beers, used it to trick the entire world into thinking diamonds are worth way more than they actually are? And that this made up illusion of value - this complete scam - has been used to fuel violence, tyranny, and oppression in developing countries? Let’s fix that.
Sources:

• The Atlantic "Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?"
• The Atlantic "How An Ad Campaign Invented the Diamond Engagement Ring"
• Time Magazine "Blood Diamonds"
• BBC "De Beers myth: Do people spend a month's salary on a diamond engagement ring?"
• New York Times "How Diamonds Became Forever"
• CNN "What are 'conflict diamonds?'"
• American Enterprise Institute "On the Economics of Diamonds, the Biggest Marketing Scam in History Orchestrated by the Most Successful Cartel Ever
• Galeries du Daimant "Diamonds Timeline"
• Galeries du Daimant "Who Mines Diamonds"
• CBS News "Diamonds: a History"
• geology.com "How Do Diamonds Form?"
• Global Witness "Conflict Diamonds"
• Human Rights Watch "Central African Republic"
• Vice "The Untold Story of a Legendarily Topless Mistress Who Saved France"
• "The Engagement Ring Story: How De Beers Created a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry From the Ground Up

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Chapters

1. Ep. 35 Diamonds: How the Diamond Industry Tricked Us Into the Greatest Marketing Scam of All Time (00:00:00)

2. [Ad] The Family Histories Podcast (00:21:16)

3. (Cont.) Ep. 35 Diamonds: How the Diamond Industry Tricked Us Into the Greatest Marketing Scam of All Time (00:21:17)