tab cleanoff!
What perfume should you wear to pick up men? Overall, men responded best to the combination of lavender and pumpkin pie, followed by the combination smell of doughnut and black licorice. Whoda thunkit.
I always wondered why mosquitoes seemed to prefer me...
How to control your dreams
A pen that lets you draw with any color! I love the idea, but I have no idea how I'd use the thing.
I've always said I didn't care for diamonds in engagement rings, and now I've got even more reason. Ten facts about diamonds includes this little gem (pun intended):
The 1930s was a bad decade for the diamond industry: the price of diamond
had declined worldwide. Europe was in the verge of another war and the
idea of a diamond engagement ring didn't take hold. Indeed, engagement
rings were considered a luxury and when given, they rarely contained diamonds.
In 1938, De Beers engaged N.W. Ayer & Son, the first advertising
agency in the United States, to change the image of diamonds in America.
The ad agency suggested a clever ad campaign to link diamonds to romance
in the public's mind. To do this, they placed diamonds in the fingers
of Hollywood stars and suggested stories to newspapers on how diamond
rings symbolized romance. Even high school students were targeted:
N. W. Ayer outlined a subtle program that included arranging for
lecturers to visit high schools across the country. "All of these
lectures revolve around the diamond engagement ring, and are reaching
thousands of girls in their assemblies, classes and informal meetings
in our leading educational institutions," the agency explained
in a memorandum to De Beers.
The agency had organized, in 1946, a weekly service called "Hollywood
Personalities," which provided 125 leading newspapers with descriptions
of the diamonds worn by movie stars. [...] The idea was to create prestigious
"role models" for the poorer middle-class wage-earners. The
advertising agency explained, in its 1948 strategy paper, "We spread
the word of diamonds worn by stars of screen and stage, by wives and
daughters of political leaders, by any woman who can make the grocer's
wife and the mechanic's sweetheart say 'I wish I had what she has.'"
(Source)
In 1948, an N.W. Ayer copywriter named Frances Gerety, had a flash of
inspiration and came up with the slogan "A Diamond is Forever."
It's a fitting slogan, because it reminds people that it is a memorial
to love, and as such, must stay forever in the family, never to be sold
(see below). Ironically, Gerety never married and died a spinster. (Source)
But equating diamonds with romance wasn't enough. Toward the end of the
1950s, N.W. Ayer found that the Americans were ready for the next logical
step, making a diamond ring a necessary element in betrothal:
"Since 1939 an entirely new generation of young people has
grown to marriageable age," it said. "To this new generation
a diamond ring is considered a necessity to engagements by virtually
everyone." The message had been so successfully impressed on the
minds of this generation that those who could not afford to buy a diamond
at the time of their marriage would "defer the purchase" rather
than forgo it. (Source)
Then the clever ad agency went one step further. N.W. Ayers noted that
when women were involved in the selection of the engagement ring, they
tended to pick cheaper rings. So De Beers encouraged the "surprise"
engagement, with men picking the diamond on their own (with the clear
message that the more expensive the stone, the better he'll look in the
eyes of a woman).
They even gave clueless men a guideline: American men should spend two
months wages, whereas Japanese men should spend three. Why? Because they
can:
But the guidelines differed by nation. A "two months' salary"
equivalent was touted in the United States, whereas men in Great Britain
got off the hook with only one month. Japan's expectation was set the
highest, at three months. I asked a De Beers representative why the
Japanese were told to spend so much compared to the Americans or the
English.
"We were, quite frankly, trying to bid them up," he answered.
(Source: The
Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and
Desire by Tom Zoellner)
In 1939, when De Beers engaged N.W. Ayer to change the way the American
public view diamonds, its annual sales of the gem was $23 million. By
1979, the ad agency had helped De Beers expand its sales to more than
$2.1 billion (Source).
I always wondered why mosquitoes seemed to prefer me...
How to control your dreams
A pen that lets you draw with any color! I love the idea, but I have no idea how I'd use the thing.
I've always said I didn't care for diamonds in engagement rings, and now I've got even more reason. Ten facts about diamonds includes this little gem (pun intended):
The 1930s was a bad decade for the diamond industry: the price of diamond
had declined worldwide. Europe was in the verge of another war and the
idea of a diamond engagement ring didn't take hold. Indeed, engagement
rings were considered a luxury and when given, they rarely contained diamonds.
In 1938, De Beers engaged N.W. Ayer & Son, the first advertising
agency in the United States, to change the image of diamonds in America.
The ad agency suggested a clever ad campaign to link diamonds to romance
in the public's mind. To do this, they placed diamonds in the fingers
of Hollywood stars and suggested stories to newspapers on how diamond
rings symbolized romance. Even high school students were targeted:
N. W. Ayer outlined a subtle program that included arranging for
lecturers to visit high schools across the country. "All of these
lectures revolve around the diamond engagement ring, and are reaching
thousands of girls in their assemblies, classes and informal meetings
in our leading educational institutions," the agency explained
in a memorandum to De Beers.
The agency had organized, in 1946, a weekly service called "Hollywood
Personalities," which provided 125 leading newspapers with descriptions
of the diamonds worn by movie stars. [...] The idea was to create prestigious
"role models" for the poorer middle-class wage-earners. The
advertising agency explained, in its 1948 strategy paper, "We spread
the word of diamonds worn by stars of screen and stage, by wives and
daughters of political leaders, by any woman who can make the grocer's
wife and the mechanic's sweetheart say 'I wish I had what she has.'"
(Source)
In 1948, an N.W. Ayer copywriter named Frances Gerety, had a flash of
inspiration and came up with the slogan "A Diamond is Forever."
It's a fitting slogan, because it reminds people that it is a memorial
to love, and as such, must stay forever in the family, never to be sold
(see below). Ironically, Gerety never married and died a spinster. (Source)
But equating diamonds with romance wasn't enough. Toward the end of the
1950s, N.W. Ayer found that the Americans were ready for the next logical
step, making a diamond ring a necessary element in betrothal:
"Since 1939 an entirely new generation of young people has
grown to marriageable age," it said. "To this new generation
a diamond ring is considered a necessity to engagements by virtually
everyone." The message had been so successfully impressed on the
minds of this generation that those who could not afford to buy a diamond
at the time of their marriage would "defer the purchase" rather
than forgo it. (Source)
Then the clever ad agency went one step further. N.W. Ayers noted that
when women were involved in the selection of the engagement ring, they
tended to pick cheaper rings. So De Beers encouraged the "surprise"
engagement, with men picking the diamond on their own (with the clear
message that the more expensive the stone, the better he'll look in the
eyes of a woman).
They even gave clueless men a guideline: American men should spend two
months wages, whereas Japanese men should spend three. Why? Because they
can:
But the guidelines differed by nation. A "two months' salary"
equivalent was touted in the United States, whereas men in Great Britain
got off the hook with only one month. Japan's expectation was set the
highest, at three months. I asked a De Beers representative why the
Japanese were told to spend so much compared to the Americans or the
English.
"We were, quite frankly, trying to bid them up," he answered.
(Source: The
Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and
Desire by Tom Zoellner)
In 1939, when De Beers engaged N.W. Ayer to change the way the American
public view diamonds, its annual sales of the gem was $23 million. By
1979, the ad agency had helped De Beers expand its sales to more than
$2.1 billion (Source).