Are diamonds really ‘forever’?

When Gladys Babson Hannaford visited Florida State University in 1960, her lectures weren’t exactly part of the curriculum—and Hannaford, also known as the “Diamond Lady,” wasn’t your ordinary teacher. A diamond “expert” who gave hundreds of “educational” talks on the gems annually, Hannaford was actually employed by an ad agency with a simple, if ambitious, mission: Make American women want diamonds.

Diamonds aren’t rare, and their prices were set by at the time by the ad agency’s glittering client, global diamond conglomerate De Beers. Nor were diamond engagement rings a historic tradition in the U.S. Yet Hannaford preached that diamonds were precious gems with important emotional and historical resonance. “The enduring quality of a diamond is associated with an enduring love,” she told students, encouraging her female listeners to demand diamond rings from their future fiancés.

Hannaford’s lectures were just one facet of an ongoing, decades-long campaign to popularize diamond engagement rings. But the now-obligatory gifts were anything but traditional when De Beers began promoting the abundant commodity as a rare symbol of romance.

Royal love tokens

The Indian subcontinent and South America were the world’s primary sources of diamonds until the 19th century. But though the gems were long known in the ancient world, they only caught on in western Europe beginning in the 13th century. Diamond cutting came into its own during the Renaissance, when artisans used new tools to carve facets into the unpolished and rough stones, enhancing their sparkle and preparing them for use in magnificent jewelry.

These new faceted diamonds were breathtakingly beautiful. They were also rare, becoming symbols of wealth and luxury for the few who could afford them. One such jewel was part of history’s first recorded diamond engagement ring, given by Archduke Maximilian, future Holy Roman Emperor, to Mary of Burgundy in 1477. That year, one of the archduke’s advisors reportedly wrote to tell him to have “a ring set with a diamond and also a gold ring” ready for his betrothal to his aristocratic intended. Centuries later, mineralogist George Frederick Kunz saw the gift as evidence that there was already a vogue for diamond engagement rings among royals at the time.

But that fashion didn’t extend to ordinary Europeans, who exchanged everything from iron rings to clothing and livestock when they decided to marry. Meanwhile, royals like Queen Victoria continued exchanging valuable jewels for their betrothals. At her engagement in 1839, her intended, Prince Albert, gave her an engagement ring set with a jeweled snake, a popular symbol of eternal love at the time. The serpent was crafted from gold and large emerald, the queen’s birth stone, along with ruby eyes and a diamond mouth. (Victoria set a number of jewelry fashion fads during her lifetime, and is also credited with popularizing the white wedding dress.)

Discovering diamonds

In the 1860s, diamonds were discovered on the South African farm of Johannes and Diederik de Beer, two Dutch settlers who later sold the mine on their property to a British company. The mine that bore their name went on to be taken over by Cecil Rhodes, a British entrepreneur and notorious politician who began buying up newly discovered mines and eventually consolidated the region’s entire diamond industry. The conglomerate that resulted, De Beers, controlled virtually all the diamonds in the world by the early 20^th century.

But the discoveries presented a challenge for the industry: Thanks to the South African discoveries, the worldwide supply of diamonds had increased by orders of magnitude, and the company eventually owned up to 90 percent of the world’s diamonds. That put De Beers in the delicate position of somehow upholding the gems’ monetary value and their reputation as luxury items despite a glut of the gems, especially in the early 20^th century as the World Wars and Great Depression dramatically reduced demand in Europe.

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As a result, De Beers and its then-owner, Ernest Oppenheimer, set their sights on the United Stated as an untapped market. But diamond engagement rings were still anything but the norm in early 20^th-century America. With the creative minds of Philadelphia’s N.W. Ayer advertising agency, however, De Beers set out to convince Americans that diamonds were a necessary luxury—one that symbolized eternal love and justified a high price tag.

Diamonds are forever

Starting in the 1940s, the Ayers agency bombarded American consumers with images of diamonds and stories of their rarity and symbolism. Magazine advertisements showcased engaged socialites and their diamond engagement rings. The company lent diamonds to prominent Hollywood stars and showcased their jewelry and sent representatives like the Diamond Lady to American women’s clubs, social groups, and even high schools to highlight the gems and create the subliminal connection between diamonds and marriage.

Royals got in on the act, with Queen Elizabeth visiting the De Beers mines in South Africa in 1947, and accepting a glittering diamond necklace from the government of South Africa along with a six-carat diamond from De Beers. Elizabeth’s engagement ring—a gift from her fiancé, Prince Philip, was designed by her future husband. It, too, featured a glittering provenance—the diamonds Philip used in the ring had been gifted to his mother in the form of a diamond and aquamarine tiara once owned by Tsar Nicholas of Russia. The iconic (and well publicized) ring helped fuel the public’s hunger for diamonds, and reminded consumers that men could get in on the act, too. De Beers pursued the male angle, too, targeting men by turning diamonds into symbols of a man’s economic success and social standing—all represented by the rock on his intended bride’s finger.

The marketing campaign was so ubiquitous that it resulted in a slogan widely considered the most successful of all time. In 1948, Ayers copywriter Mary Frances Gerety—who never married in her lifetime—came up with the “A Diamond is Forever” tag, which is still used by De Beers and the diamond industry today. It isn’t just pithy, scholars note: The slogan “also [conveys] the idea that the ring should not be resold because of its sentimental value,” thereby encouraging the purchase of multiple diamonds in the case of multiple marriages.

De Beers’ goal was ambitious: to turn diamonds into a “psychological necessity” and make a diamond a must-have engagement item despite income, financial pressures, or cost. And it worked. According to the World Diamond Council, global jewelry sales are worth more than $72 billion a year, with the U.S. representing the world’s largest diamond market. Meanwhile, De Beers no longer controls the majority of the world’s diamonds thanks to new mine discoveries, competitive market forces, and the emergence of lab-grown diamonds.

A quick jaunt around Instagram reveals that the diamond engagement ring trend isn’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, social media is now considered a primary driver of diamond sales, with a majority of newly engaged couples reporting they announce their engagement on social media. Despite a reported decline in the sale of engagement rings since the covid-19 pandemic, diamond retailers are counting on a turnaround. As the Diamond Lady said back in 1960, “Diamonds are the backbone of a jeweler’s business”—all thanks to some savvy marketing.