De Beers Convinced Every Man to Buy a Diamond 💎

In 1938, most men didn't propose with diamond rings. Diamonds were luxury items for the ultra-wealthy, nothing more.

Then, De Beers launched an ad campaign that would rewrite culture itself.

The Setup

Cecil Rhodes founded De Beers in 1888 after massive diamond deposits were discovered in South Africa. They had more than enough supply, but without the demand to match, circulating too many diamonds would crash prices. To drive demand, De Beers hired ad agency N.W. Ayer in 1938 with one goal: make diamonds essential to marriage.

Their tactics were both morally questionable and genius:

Original influencer marketing - Gave diamonds to movie stars, planted stories in gossip magazines about how much these stars loved diamonds.

Psychological warfare - Their famous slogan, "A Diamond is Forever", didn't just evoke eternal love; it discouraged resales, protecting De Beers' pricing control.

Fake trend creation - Paid designers to talk about the "diamond trend" on broadcasts. Commissioned high school lecture series across America teaching kids that diamonds = marriage.

Made-up rules - The "two-month salary rule" (later inflated to three months) was invented by De Beers to get men to spend more.

The Result

From 1939 to 1979, U.S. wholesale diamond sales exploded from $23 million to $2.1 billion, a whooping 100x increase.

Today, even with lab-grown diamonds costing 60-80% less, real diamonds remain the standard. Done right, marketing can rewrite the destiny of an entire industry.

Source: Sahil Bloom Substack

Candy Crush generates over $600,000 daily.

The twist? Fewer than 4% of players pay anything at all. Welcome to mobile gaming's "whale" economy, where a tiny fraction of users bankroll entire games.

The Strategy

Cast a Wide Net - Games are free to download, attracting millions. The goal isn't converting everyone into paid users, just finding the whales who'll spend thousands.

Manufacture Frustration - Game mechanics intentionally create "fun pain." Candy Crush gives you 5 lives that regenerate every 30 minutes. Run out? Wait 2.5 hours or pay $0.99. Levels often leave you one move from winning, maximizing emotional investment right before offering paid solutions.

Monetize Competition - Player-versus-player games amplify spending pressure. In Clash of Clans and Puzzle & Dragons (makes $3.8M daily), paying players dominate leaderboards, creating social pressure to keep up.

The Result

Just 0.15% of mobile gamers generate over 50% of industry revenue. These "whales" spend hundreds to thousands of dollars monthly while 96% pay nothing. In a game called Modern War, a 59-year-old appliance store owner spent over $2 million over four years.

However, both types of players are important to a game’s success. Games need millions of free players to provide content and competition for whales, who subsidize everyone else.

Source: Kid Screen

In 2014, Benjamin Careathers sued Red Bull for false advertising and actually won.

His claim? After drinking Red Bull since 2002, he noticed something troubling: no wings had sprouted from his back (lol).

He argued Red Bull misled customers into thinking their premium energy drink offered superhuman benefits and the court took it seriously.

Red Bull settled for $13 million. Anyone who'd bought Red Bull between 2002-2014 could claim either $10 cash OR two free Red Bulls (that also don’t give wings).

Let us know in the replies if you benefited from this lawsuit!

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