re: Getting pretty serious with my girlfriend and looking for a ring

quote:

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A worldwide decline of diamond prices in the 1930s led the Oppenheimer family to begin their world famous marketing campaign, "A diamond is forever."

Henry, son of Ernest, traveled to New York in 1938 to meet with advertising agency N. W. Ayer. The United States was seen as the next big market for diamonds, and a very effective game plan was formed to sell diamonds to Americans: convince them that diamonds equated love.

Through advertising, men were convinced that the size of the diamond in an engagement ring showed how much they loved their fiancée. Movie stars were shown wearing diamonds in the relatively new motion pictures. And the most effective piece of advertising came in 1947, with the creation of the tag line "A diamond is forever." This later become the company's official motto.

As a result of these campaigns, the number of brides receiving engagement rings, and diamond prices in the U.S., increased dramatically.

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