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All That Glitters: Diamonds and the Cultivation of Desire
Once upon a time, in the middle of the 20th century, diamonds were not a girl’s best friend or the sine qua non of a marriage proposal. If average Americans thought about diamonds at all, it was as emblems of impossible luxury — think of “Diamond Jim” Brady, the Gilded Age financier of legendary appetites — or utilitarian value: diamond drills, the diamond stylus in a record player.
Everything began to change in 1938. The diamond market had been declining since World War I, and the Great Depression had dramatically shifted priorities: Brides-to-be wanted washing machines or cars, not baubles. In some desperation, De Beers, the South African diamond cartel founded in 1888 by Cecil Rhodes, contacted the New York ad agency N.W. Ayer to see whether “the use of propaganda in various forces” could reverse the trend.
The agency accepted the challenge. Its ambitious goal: “to create a situation where almost every person pledging marriage feels compelled to acquire a diamond engagement ring.” (Compelled!) Two women at the agency, Frances Gerety and Dorothy Dignam, led the charge. Gerety, a copywriter, churned out purple prose during the war years (“The engagement ring on her finger is bright as a tear — but not with sadness”) before hitting pay dirt, so to speak, in 1947. She distilled the mission into four sparkling words: “A…
