1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff 2 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:11,879 Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbam here. We all like to think that we 3 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:15,760 Speaker 1: aren't overly swayed by advertisements, but even if you can 4 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:18,599 Speaker 1: resist the urge to order a pizza after watching a 5 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: tantalizing commercial, ads absolutely impact you, and not just by 6 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: getting jingle stuck in your head. AD campaigns can change 7 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: our society. A perfect example is the tradition of giving 8 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: diamond engagement rings, which isn't even a whole century old. 9 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:40,720 Speaker 1: Today's question is why do most engagement rings feature diamonds? 10 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:44,920 Speaker 1: You know, why not rubies or opals or nuggets of 11 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:48,080 Speaker 1: delicious beef jerky. That last one wouldn't work out for 12 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: obvious reasons. But it turns out that, yes, you can 13 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: trace this precious tradition back to an ad campaign. To 14 00:00:56,680 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: be fair, diamonds are really cool rocks, and I think 15 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: that a lot of rocks are cool. But diamonds objectively 16 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:06,759 Speaker 1: are made of mere carbon, one of the most common 17 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 1: elements on our planet. A carbon accounts for more than 18 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: eighteen percent of your body weight. But the carbon in 19 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:17,400 Speaker 1: diamonds has been crystallized beneath Earth's crust and its molten mantle, 20 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: some one hundred miles or one hundred and sixty kilometers 21 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: under the surface. It happens that deep because that's where 22 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 1: pressures reach four hundred and thirty five thousand pounds per 23 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: square inch or thirty kilobars, and temperatures reach at least 24 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit or four hundred celsius. 25 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 1: The carbon crystals that come out of that pressure cooker 26 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: are the hardest known material that occurs in nature and 27 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 1: are excellent conducting heat, so they make for terrific industrial tools, 28 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: laboratory equipment, and even experimental electronic components. It's some of 29 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: these practical properties that originally made diamonds valuable. Ancient Indians 30 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: found riverbed to potosets of rough diamonds thousands of years 31 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: ago and identified them as stones that no known tools 32 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:10,920 Speaker 1: could cut. These diamonds became objects of mythical significance, used 33 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: in religious objects and talismans. Researchers have found evidence that 34 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,280 Speaker 1: these stones made their way to ancient China, where stone 35 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: age crafts people were using them to polish ceremonial axes 36 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: to a mirror finish four thousand, five hundred years ago. 37 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:30,239 Speaker 1: Diamonds can also be you know, really pretty rough ones 38 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: were used in jewelry in ancient Rome two thousand years ago. 39 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 1: Around the thirteen to fifteen hundreds, diamonds became sparkly additions 40 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: and centerpieces in jewelry for basically only nobility because they 41 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 1: were the only ones who could afford it. The market 42 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: opened up a little when deposits were found in Brazil 43 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: in the seventeen hundreds, and this coincided with the growing 44 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: middleish class of people who could swing for small luxuries. 45 00:02:54,960 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: But diamonds were still truly scarce, that is until the 46 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: winter of eighteen sixty six, which is when a fifteen 47 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: year old kid in South Africa stumbled across the first 48 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:10,119 Speaker 1: evidence of what turned out to be a huge deposit 49 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: of diamonds. Though the first few were found in riverbeds, 50 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: in less than a decade, mines had revealed more diamonds 51 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: than had been found in India across thousands of years. 52 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:27,600 Speaker 1: This actually created something of a problem. Okay. In the 53 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:31,640 Speaker 1: early days, English businessman Cecil Roads moved in and started 54 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: buying up all the property he could, including a farm 55 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: owned by two brothers named Deber. He had a few competitors, 56 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:42,800 Speaker 1: but over the next couple decades, owners of smaller diamond 57 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: mines joined up with owners of larger ones and eventually 58 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 1: created a consortium called the De Beer's Consolidated Mines, with 59 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: Roads at the head. By eighteen eighty eight, they essentially 60 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: controlled the entire South African diamond supply. But with control 61 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: over so many diamonds, they worried about flooding the market 62 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,080 Speaker 1: and making the price too cheap to be worth the 63 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: expense of mining them. So Rhodes controlled the supply by 64 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: creating intermediaries to buy the uncut diamonds from the De 65 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: Beer's company, send them on to cutters and polishers, and 66 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: from there onto retailed jewelers to sell. Debiers controlled every 67 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,760 Speaker 1: step of the sale and distribution of the gems, and 68 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:27,559 Speaker 1: was thus able to decide how many diamonds to release 69 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 1: every year, as well as set its own price points 70 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: that had to be met worldwide, regardless of any given 71 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:39,240 Speaker 1: jewelers association with the Deber's diamond cartel. I've seen different figures, 72 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: but De Beer's controlled some ninety percent of the world's 73 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: diamond market for decades, so that took care of the supply. 74 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: But how about the demand. The diamond engagement ring was 75 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: not a tradition in any culture before De Beer's got 76 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 1: into the diamond business. Before the middle of the nineteen 77 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:04,400 Speaker 1: hundredds opals, rubies, sapphires, and turquoise were way more popular 78 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: than diamonds as engagement stones. As of nineteen thirty nine, 79 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: only some ten percent of US engagement rings bore diamonds, 80 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:15,679 Speaker 1: and the jewels being used were smaller and of poorer 81 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: quality than the stones common today, But by the end 82 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, about seventy five percent of US 83 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:27,080 Speaker 1: engagement rings featured diamonds. Here's where that world shaking ad 84 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:32,919 Speaker 1: campaign comes in. Okay. By the nineteen thirties, Debiers was 85 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:36,160 Speaker 1: in a tight spot. The financial strains of World War One, 86 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: the ensuing Great Depression, and the looming promise of a 87 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:43,320 Speaker 1: second World War had sent the demand for its carefully priced, 88 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:49,320 Speaker 1: controlled artificially scarce diamonds into freefall. Young couple's entering marriage 89 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 1: didn't want luxury goods. They wanted practical things like home 90 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:58,760 Speaker 1: appliances or maybe a car. Further antitrust laws prevented de 91 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: beers from directly to doing business in the United States, 92 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: so in nineteen thirty eight, De Beer's hired ad agency 93 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:10,039 Speaker 1: n w Ayer to research the market and produce a 94 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:15,160 Speaker 1: comprehensive US AD campaign, A print, radio and celebrity publicity. 95 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: Ayer identified the engagement ring market as one worth pursuing, 96 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:24,400 Speaker 1: and since diamonds had no real physical value, the agency 97 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: and their lead copywriter for the client, a one Mary 98 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: Francis Garrity, worked to assign diamond's emotional value. Print ads 99 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:38,440 Speaker 1: compared diamonds to paintings by Picasso and Dali, unique and precious. 100 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:41,359 Speaker 1: They loaned diamonds out to famous women to wear to 101 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: fancy events like the Academy Awards and the Kentucky Derby. 102 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: They commissioned portraits of famous couples who had recently gotten 103 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:53,320 Speaker 1: engaged with diamond rings. The number of diamonds being purchased 104 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:56,520 Speaker 1: for engagement rings in the US tripled in less than 105 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: a decade. Then, in nineteen five forty seven, they launched 106 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:06,480 Speaker 1: garrity slogan, A diamond is Forever it was and is. 107 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 1: A brilliant campaign pun intended it set up diamonds as 108 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: a near indispensable part of engagement traditions and further as 109 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: heirlooms to be cherished and kept, never to be resold 110 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: back into the market, meaning more diamonds would be bought, 111 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:27,200 Speaker 1: and almost all of them new. But then another discovery 112 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:31,000 Speaker 1: changed the game again. In nineteen fifty five, deposits of 113 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,680 Speaker 1: diamonds were found in Siberia, yielding a lot of relatively 114 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,800 Speaker 1: small stones. Instead of trying to compete with the new mine, 115 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,120 Speaker 1: De Beer struck a deal with the Soviet Union to 116 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: buy its supply to incorporate it into the company's already 117 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,280 Speaker 1: existing structures. But they had just spent a couple of 118 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: decades promoting diamonds as the bigger, the better, so to 119 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:56,560 Speaker 1: sell these small diamonds, De Beers created the four ceas system, 120 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: a clarity, carrot cut, and color, so that even diminutive 121 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: diamonds could cost as much as the larger ones if 122 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: they were higher quality. Of course, there are some other 123 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: factors that helped launch the tradition of diamond engagement rings. 124 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:14,400 Speaker 1: Right around the same time that Ayer's campaign was starting up, 125 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 1: laws surrounding engagement to marriage were changing. Previously a spurned fiance, 126 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: but usually a woman could sue their ex if the 127 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: engagement dissolved before marriage. These laws, sometimes called heart balm laws, 128 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,680 Speaker 1: or a relic from a not two distant time when 129 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,959 Speaker 1: marriage was a major economic proposition for a lot of women. 130 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: For a certain class, it was a woman's job to 131 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:42,040 Speaker 1: get married, so any money awarded from a heartbalm suit 132 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:44,480 Speaker 1: could help a girl recoup the cost of having been 133 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: off the market for a while. But in the nineteen 134 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:51,920 Speaker 1: thirties and forties, these laws were dismantled, and in response, 135 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,000 Speaker 1: engagement rings got a little bit more expensive as a 136 00:08:55,040 --> 00:09:00,439 Speaker 1: type of unofficial engagement insurance. Also, later on the nineteen 137 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:04,400 Speaker 1: fifties and sixties, a culture of conspicuous consumption came into play, 138 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:08,600 Speaker 1: a further driving sales. But whatever the surrounding cultural issues, 139 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:14,160 Speaker 1: diamonds stuck as symbols of love. From the nineteen seventies 140 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:18,199 Speaker 1: through the nineteen nineties, Deber's monopolies suffered from further discoveries 141 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:21,959 Speaker 1: of diamonds around the world and unwillingness of various parties 142 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:25,719 Speaker 1: to bow to the cartel. A further consumers became more 143 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:28,720 Speaker 1: aware of the true costs of diamonds due to bloody 144 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:32,040 Speaker 1: conflicts surrounding their control and the control of the governments 145 00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:35,760 Speaker 1: in the areas where they're found. People didn't want to 146 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 1: buy these blood diamonds, so de Beers teamed up with 147 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:42,160 Speaker 1: the United Nations to establish what's called the Kimberly Process 148 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:44,960 Speaker 1: in two thousand and three as a sort of passport 149 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,440 Speaker 1: system for diamonds. It now indicates all stones countries of 150 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: origin and ensures that no money generated by their sales 151 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:58,160 Speaker 1: will fund terrorist groups. Unfortunately, the Kimberly Process isn't perfect, 152 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:01,640 Speaker 1: and it can't regulate or prevent the other numerous issues 153 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: inherent in the diamond trade, including child labor, workers' rights violations, 154 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:12,319 Speaker 1: and environmental devastation. But the game is changing again today 155 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:15,840 Speaker 1: with the introduction of affordable synthetic diamonds into the market, 156 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: the public's taste for natural diamonds has seriously shifted. These 157 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,480 Speaker 1: diamonds are grown in industrial labs but are functionally indistinguishable 158 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:28,719 Speaker 1: from natural diamonds. As of twenty twenty six, eighty three 159 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: percent of newly given engagement rings still feature a diamond. However, 160 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: sixty one percent of center stones are now synthetic. The 161 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,240 Speaker 1: past four years have seen the retail price of natural 162 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: diamonds fall by forty percent. In the short term, this 163 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:49,520 Speaker 1: is unfortunately causing more instability in regions that already struggle 164 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: with the supply of diamonds for international trade. It has 165 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:58,320 Speaker 1: been a wild less than a century for diamond engagement rings. I, 166 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: for one, wonder whether the diamond bubble could be collapsing 167 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 1: or whether this new tradition could well be forever. Today's 168 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: episode is based on the article The True Story of 169 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: Blood Diamonds on HowStuffWorks dot Com written by Diana Brown, 170 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:19,640 Speaker 1: and on an old brain Stuff video called why do 171 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,720 Speaker 1: We put Diamonds on Engagement Rings? Written by Me to 172 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,280 Speaker 1: hear my less polite opinions about the industry, check out 173 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,319 Speaker 1: the episode of the podcast Stuff They Don't Want You 174 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:33,000 Speaker 1: To Know called Diamonds the Conspiracy. Brain Stuff is production 175 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:36,200 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com. Is produced 176 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:39,520 Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit 177 00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:42,720 Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 178 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:43,679 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.