THE GHOST TRAIN
THE FINANCE GHOST: Will De Beers face the next quartz crisis?
As lab-grown diamonds now rival mined gems on every level — especially price — big daddy De Beers may soon have an existential crisis on its hands, like the Swiss watchmaking industry in the 1970s
De Beers doesn’t just participate in the diamond industry; for decades the company was the diamond industry. A little more than half a century after its establishment in 1888, De Beers devised the industry’s all-important diamond grading system (the 4Cs) to run with the world-famous slogan “A diamond is forever”.
In case you’re wondering, the slogan was created by a young woman copywriter, Frances Gerety. In the 1940s, women copywriters were assigned exclusively to women’s products, as the zeitgeist allowed only for men writing for men. That critical allocation to the De Beers account would lead to what is widely regarded as the best advertising copy of all time. It’s a fantastic story of breaking the diamond ceiling...
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