Just The Gist of... De Beers and the Diamond Marketing Scam
6/23/20261 hr 4 min
Why is a diamond supposed to cost you two months' salary? Why is it THE rock we’re supposed to propose with? Turns out none of it is real. Diamonds aren't rare and they're almost definitely not worth what you paid. All of that was made up by an advertising agency paid by De Beers - the world’s biggest diamond company. Because De Beers knew if people found out that diamonds weren’t actually rare or special, they’d stop buying them.
This is Just The Gist of what was arguably one of the best marketing campaigns in history (and the reason that diamond ring on your finger isn’t nearly as valuable as you think): De Beers and the Diamond Marketing Scam.
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Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (The Atlantic, 1982)
Diamonds Aren't Rare. Why Are They So in Demand? (The Atlantic, 2023)
Diamonds Aren't Forever: The Story of De Beers (Sahil Bloom, 2022)
The Diamond Empire: How De Beers Created a Market Out of Nothing (Business Leader, 2024)
Diamond Crash Delivers a Third Strike for De Beers (Forbes, 2026)
How De Beers Changed the Diamond Market With One Simple Tagline (Sotheby’s)
Diamonds from Coal? (Geology.com)
Diamonds Unearthed (Smithsonian Magazine)
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRosie Waterland· Host0:00
Beep boop, beep boop, beep boop. A Just A Network production. Beep boop boop. [laughs] That sounds good. Last week it was announced that De Beers, the world's biggest diamond company, was struggling to find a buyer as it continues to lose billions, with a B, in value, essentially because they've been running a decades long scam, tricking the world into thinking that diamonds are valuable, and people have finally started to figure out that they're not. What? I know. What? What? [laughs] So not long ago, like even still today, if you were to ask most people, like, "What is the most valuable jewel or gemstone you can like... in the world?" And, like, most people would say, like, probably a diamond. Diamond, yeah A diamond. Like, they're rare, they're expensive. The biggest ones are, like, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and even small ones are worth thousands and thousands of dollars. Yeah, that's why it's such a big deal when she threw it at the end of Titanic and it went down to the ocean floor. Yes. Yeah Exactly. Like, people line up in museums to look at them. They're a girl's best friend. They're a girl's best friend. [laughs] They're handed down as family heirlooms. Like, they're so special that it's literally a tradition to give them to the person we love- Mm ... and want to spend the rest of our lives with. Like, diamonds are forever. Mm, that's what they say. Except they're not, James. They're not. [laughs] Diamonds aren't rare, and they're not nearly as valuable as you think. All of that was made