[mikehrz]

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond
The hype surrounding diamonds, making them seem far more valuable than they actually are, has been mentioned several times here in the forum. I ran across this article that describes how the marketing campaign that gave rise to the current perception of diamonds came about. It's an old article (1982), but I found it interesting and thought I would share it with you all.

[Caitlin]

Hi Mike

I agree. It is a classic everyone should read.

In fact I listed this same article in the pros and cons of tissue only vs. tissue/bead nucleation thread, response #4.
The Debate: Tissue or Bead Nucleation? The Pros and Cons of Each.
We should probably list it again in the the resources forum.

[Valeria101]

No, my relatives did that before I had a chance to care about their diamonds, and I've always been a fan of color instead. Those are not easy to sell either, but at least there's a chance at the end of the tunnel. For diamonds, it looks like many buyers do not care ... I doubt diamonds could have 'caught' the way they have if they were not overwhelmingly the first (and possibly only) important jewelry purchase for so many.

Is this even a valid question about pearls? 'Got my own impression, but never quite looked into it and no one around seems to want to sell theirs, just buy the next new thing

[Taylor]

Maybe the marketers are over-looking one other element of consipuous consumption: careless regard. Everone has heard of how the Hope diamond use to hang around the neck of the owner's dog or how Liz's dog almost ate her fabulous pearl. If the marketers could convince us to see material things in reverse, maybe we'd have a market like Ray Bradbury's where only the rich get to keep their things and the poor have to replace them everyday.

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by Taylor

Maybe the marketers are over-looking one other element of conspicuous consumption: careless regard.

'Guess they didn't remember the Daniel K campaign showing 50k diamond rings on hands holding push carts and baby bottles? That's the latest one I remember of along those lines, but no news is news for long in advertising, so there must have been others.

BTW. loved D.K.'s revival of some Faberge design concepts... selective as it were. Wish there were more of the type (and quality). If I remember right, some of those documents are still in the public domain (i.e. copyright up for grabs).