"Diamonds are forever"
Bookmarked Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? by Edward Jay Epstein.
... production accelerated at an incredible pace, and De Beers was forced to reconsider its sales strategy. De Beers ordered N. W. Ayer to reverse one of its themes: women were no longer to be led to equate the status and emotional commitment to an engagement with the sheer size of the diamond. A “strategy for small diamond sales” was outlined, stressing the “importance of quality, color and cut” over size.
Brilliant (pun intended) and required reading from more than 40 years ago on how marketing shaped the public perception of a certain kind of stone.
A stark reminder that we're all just sheep. What kinds of perceptions are being reinforced as natural laws in order to fuel consumption these days?