Are diamonds truly forever? De Beers is an extremely big monopoly with an extremely tight grasp on the supply of diamonds. Why everyone knows that diamonds are a symbol of true eternal love! A diamond is forever! Maybe you've even bought a diamond for someone once! Diamonds are one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the American public. They"re incredibly common, if there were a real free market for diamonds, they would be worth a few dollars each. But virtually every diamond in the world is sold by one company- De Beers. It's not just a monopoly; it's the monopoly to end all monopolies. Because they control just about every diamond mine in the world, they keep production very low, helping to keep prices very high. That's part of why diamonds are so expensive.
Now, what about the symbols of love and affection? Congratulations, you've been suckered. In 1938, De Beers hired one of the largest American advertisement agencies to convince the American public that diamonds mean love. They have been tremendously successful. How was this accomplished? A few ways. First they went after newly developing Hollywood, they convinced stars to wear diamonds and screenwriters to use them as a symbol of love. Then they got gossip columnists to start obsessing over the size of various rings, "Humphrey Bogart proposed with a three carat ring!" Fashion designers were hired to talk about the "trend towards diamonds". They even got Queen Elizabeth into it- she was convinced to take big well-publicized trips to diamond mines and started wearing diamond jewelry.
In three years, diamond sales increased 55%. But that wasn't enough they needed total market domination. They invited a new colour, "diamond blue"; they started a news service that sent descriptions of celebrities" diamonds to newspapers across the country. By 1960, they had convinced an entire generation that a diamond was a fundamental part of an engagement.