This Diamond Ad Will Make You Feel Wildly Insecure - Ads Review - De Beers Wedding Ring Print Ad
You don’t have to dig deep to find out that the diamond industry was created almost entirely by advertisers. In the early 1900s, only 10% of engagement rings had diamonds, according to BBC (much less, diamonds that cost two months’ salary). But diamond advertisers created demand.
How? By making men feel wildly insecure.
Take a look at the copy on this print ad from De Beers in the late ‘40s. It’ll make you feel insecure too.
“2 months’ salary showed the future Mrs. Smith what the future will be like.”
Let’s start here. In the ‘40s, people got married young. That means they didn’t have much to spend on diamonds, because they didn’t have much to spend at all. But the American ideal was alive and well, the markets were trending upward after The Great Depression, and people were optimistic. Young men may not have had much money at the time, but they didn’t want their fiancee’s engagement ring–you know, the ring that was supposed to last her a lifetime–to reflect where they were. People wanted it to reflect where they were going. So right off the bat, De Beers appeals to capitalism and pride.
Next we see the image. A beautiful woman with a large diamond, staring longingly at the viewer.
This image is well crafted. Unlike most print ads from this era, it’s not too staged or over the top. The tight crop on the woman’s face, the lack of a smile, the intense stare. It almost seems as if this woman wasn’t ready for the photo–as if you traded glances with her on the subway. However you perceive it, it’s a captivating image with the product front and center.
“You can’t look at Jane and tell me she’s not worth 2 months’ salary. I mean just look at her. So I wanted to get her a diamond engagement ring that said exactly that, ‘Just Look.’ I’d found out that a good spending guideline today is about 2 months’ salary.
This paragraph goes for the jugular. Everyone would describe their relationship with their significant other as priceless. You can’t put a figure on the worth of love. But De Beers does. They taunt the reader here, prodding for how much they’d be willing to spend to display their love for their fiancee. As soon as it seems too much, they introduce a conversational tone, as if you were talking to a friend at a cocktail party, both watching Jane dance across the room, bathed in golden light and jazz music. The “friend” (a giant corporation) says offhand that he “found out” (was utterly sold) that a good guideline for a diamond budget is 2 month’s salary. This somehow makes it seem simultaneously like an insider piece of information, and something everyone already knows.
“2 Months’ Salary”
De Beers slams this into the readers head, three times over the course of the 1-page ad. They intentionally use the number 2, inserted of spelling out “two,” because it’s easier to remember that way.
“Now, the only thing that other men ask her is, ‘When’s the wedding day?’”
De Beers finishes it off with the most sexist, possessive, insecurity-agitating line yet. As if the only way to keep your fiancee from leaving you for another other man is to buy her a diamond so big that it wards them off. After appealing to American ideals, and romantic ideals, De Beers finishes with the most basic ideal. The primal instinct for reproduction. It brings the headspace back to the most basic, animalistic place. And it agitates that fear. De beers basically that if you don’t get your fiancee a ring worth 2 months’ salary, someone else will. Somehow, they do this with conversational tone that would almost merit a smile, a clink of the martinis, and a shared cigarette. As you watch Jane twirl on the other side of the room, of course.
Closing
This ad struck me because there was so much packed into it. Any single one of these appeals would have made a very strong ad. But to use all four, in such a cool, engaging way? Brilliance. I’ll say, for any newcomers to this blog, that I don’t endorse this sort of coy sexism, or cultural manipulation. But you can’t deny the effectiveness of this ad, subjectively or objectively. Take the lessons. Learn from them. Use them for good.
See you next time.
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