much just to show a person that they loved another that much. So then they decided to go with a different approach this one would take far longer to seethe effects of it though. The idea was to go into schools and talk to kids in their teens and talk tothem about the importance of the diamond engagement ring. They used an expression that iscommonly now associated with diamonds and De Beers A Diamond is Forever. This was theslogan that Harry Oppenheimer, who is the son of the founder of De Beers, came up with. While inthe school they taught the children, many of the common place ideas that we hear of today like,Diamonds are Girls Best Friend and How Could Two Months Salary last a Lifetime.By the time that these young men and young women become of marrying age they felt thatit was as customary to buy a diamond engagement ring as it was to wear a white dress or to throwrice. The ad campaign was largely the cause of the increase in diamond sales in America. Thismade Mr. Oppenheimer an extremely wealthy man, but he wanted more. He thought that if he wasable to sell the idea of a diamond engagement rings in the states he might as well try it in Japan.One of the main problems was that the Japanese still practiced arranged marriages and that meantthere was no courtship, no seduction, or no prenuptial love what so ever in Japan(Diamonds arentforever, 73). His first hope was that because there was millions of American solders that occupiedthe area they would have some influence on the market ,but it had no effect what so ever. He hadto think of something that would make a bigger impact. So in 1967 Oppenheimer called upon the talents of James Thompson who was the head ofan ad agency in London that would deal with ads in Europe and Japan. Thompson began hiscampaign in Japan by suggesting that diamonds were a visible sign of modern western Values. Hecreated a series of color advertisements in Japanese magazines showing beautiful women s...
