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 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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