The engagement ring: non verified origin
“Diamond is Forever”
This 1947 slogan from the N.W. Ayer advertising agency covers a horrific story midway between Mad Men and Dallas.
Cecil Rhodes, a hybrid of Trump and JR, a pleasant imperialist fanatic, has the ” great idea “, following the ending of his studies at Oxford in 1880, to redeem the world by evangelizing it in the English way.
In 1880, Cecil bought up land in South Africa. I reassure you, his goal is not only proselytizing but also mercantile. The same year he founded the “De Beers Mining Company”.
It’s good to have diamond mines, but making sure they are profitable is better, right?
He creates in all logic “The Diamond Syndicate”. This office controls diamond stocks and diamond prices. In other words, it creates a shortage and thus keeps the purchase of diamonds at artificially high prices.
In 1890, he became the seventh Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and adopted the Glen Grey Act.
Le Glen Grey Act, what is it, exactly?
In fact it is about the extremely democratic law restricting the land ownership of South Africans (nice), considered as a precursor of apartheid.
Cecil, has already made his sympathy potential fall heavily. ( we will avoid talking about Bostwana or Zimbabwe, otherwise his portrait could also be used as a dartboard)
After his death, the De Beer company continued to prosper. In 1947, the company hired the advertising agency N.W. Ayer, which came up with the famous slogan “Diamond Is Forever” associated with photos of engagement rings to encourage the purchase of diamonds.
the diamond supposed to symbolize eternal love finds the genesis of this meaning in a background of ostracism, xenophobia, and venality.
Behind the beauty of the gesture and this true mindset of our consumer society, the sordid story remains unknown.
By Atld
