| Do you get the feeling that buying a diamond ring | | | | and a life of eternity. We all are victims of one big |
| for your fiance upon getting engaged is a tradition | | | | advertising campaign. There is nothing to do about |
| that dates back to ancient times - thousands of | | | | it, really. The campaign hit the tipping point 50 |
| years? Sure, maybe the ancient Romans didn't | | | | years ago, and so be it. I bought my wife a |
| give the same exact type of ring we give, but | | | | diamond ring, my friends all bought their wives |
| they surely gave some fancy piece of diamond | | | | diamond rings, and you will buy your wife a |
| jewelry or engagement ring to their loved one | | | | diamond ring. |
| upon engaging to be married. | | | | Not only that, but De Beers also has created the |
| The truth is, as in much of the diamond industry, | | | | rule, another fictitious one solidified by massive |
| the history of the engagement ring is really very | | | | marketing, that when buying an engagement ring, |
| short and is based on a marketing scheme to sell | | | | one should buy one that has the value of two |
| more diamonds. In the late 1940s and early | | | | monthly salaries. Do you have to? Of course not. |
| 1950s, De Beers worked very hard on creating a | | | | But you try and buck the trend. Good luck with |
| marketing campaign that would make people feel | | | | that! Like everything else in the diamond industry, |
| as if diamonds are romantic, diamonds are the | | | | it is all sourced in marketing to make us think this |
| symbol of eternity, diamonds are a girl's best | | | | is the way it has to be. |
| friend, Diamonds are Forever, diamonds are the | | | | Diamonds are an illusion - it is a piece of rock, |
| classic symbol of betrothal, etc. | | | | carbon really, that has been polished to sparkle. |
| Eventually their marketing, with the millions upon | | | | The marketing campaign started with that, and |
| millions of dollars they put into it, took hold and | | | | then went on to encompass every other aspect |
| became part of the industry, and part of the | | | | of the diamond market. That is the world we live |
| consciousness of the average person. When | | | | in, so make the best of it. If you already have to |
| anybody thinks of diamonds today, they | | | | buy the diamond, and the engagement ring, buy it |
| automatically think of love and romance, marriage | | | | right. |