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De Beers admits defeat over man-made diamonds
The world's largest diamond miner is doing the unthinkable: Selling stones produced in a laboratory. De Beers launched a new jewelry brand on Tuesday that features synthetic diamonds, a major reversal for a company that had implored consumers to stick with "real" stones.
The brand, called Lightbox, will offer synthetic diamonds at a fraction of the price it charges for stones pulled out of the earth. De Beers framed the move as a response to consumer demands. "Lightbox will transform the lab-grown diamond sector by offering consumers a lab-grown product they have told us they want but aren't getting: affordable fashion jewelry that may not be forever, but is perfect for right now," said De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver.
[...] De Beers had been an outspoken critic of synthetic diamonds. Company executives vowed never to sell artificial stones, and it participated in the diamond industry's "real is rare" campaign. It even developed a machine that spots lab-grown stones.
Also at Bloomberg and TechCrunch.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bootsy on Thursday May 31 2018, @09:10AM (25 children)
Buy a diamond ring. Then see what price the shop will give you when you ask to sell it back to them. De Beers have always kept the price artificially high.
Diamonds aren't that rare. If you realy want a diamond ring buy one second hand and, if you don't like the design, have the diamond removed and the gold, silver, platinum melted down for use in a new ring. The whole point of diamond is that is hard and stable so one that has been used before is probably still in perfect condition. Life is expensive enough without puttnig pressure on people that want to get married to buy something with a price fixed by a global monopoly.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Thursday May 31 2018, @10:02AM (23 children)
Literally still baffled why people bother with rings at all.
Certainly stupendously expensive ones.
I can only think that it's literally a "I'm married, keep away" marker, but if you need one of those on your husband/wife, then you have bigger problems.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday May 31 2018, @10:53AM (2 children)
I think they value it for the same reason people started smoking, valuing mink stoles, feathers of rare birds in ladies hats, the Cardassians, Justin Beeber, etc.
They are promoted in the movies... and it seems everytime someone picks up a microphone and stands in front of a camera, for some unknown reason, people follow the noisemaker. Ever watched the old movies where they were doing product placement with cigarettes, especially trying to get women to smoke? Later it was cartoons plainly directed at kids to give the illusion it is cool. Geez...last I looked around here, $7.50 a pack. Now trying to get kids hooked on those vape pens... ohhh so cool. No, addictive.
Thats why advertising is a multibillion dollar industry. A lot of people do as they are told. There is a lot of money to be made if you are in a position that you tell people what to do. People will be obedient to the loudmouth, even if they are not paid to do so.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @05:39PM (1 child)
> the Cardassians
Now there is a show I'd watch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:43PM
From all the jokes that fly around the net I'm pretty sure that is what you are getting, no matter how you spell the name. Figuratively and literally.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday May 31 2018, @11:28AM (4 children)
Expectation.
If you want the woman who wants the diamond, you have a choice...
Finding another woman is likely more difficult and more expensive than buying the diamond.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Thursday May 31 2018, @04:30PM (3 children)
The woman who wants the diamond will be more expensive in the long run.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:32PM (2 children)
They are all expensive in the long run.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @11:43PM (1 child)
Then maybe you're the issue.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday June 01 2018, @03:19AM
Western society is something you live in. Opt out, choose which bits you don't want to "get" in return.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @12:42PM (1 child)
If you are not committed enough to get a permanent mark indicating you're married, that will be difficult if not impossible to remove when you're divorced, then why are you getting married in the first place? Friends with benefits and unmarried cohabitation are there if you're not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:04PM
There's a local college radio station that runs a public service announcement trying to get people to think about the longevity[1] of plastic in the ecosysytem.
In the PSA, the guy presents his gal with a ring where the "stone" is plastic.
His spiel is that the plastic will last forever, "just like our love".
[1] Think about the 5 huge ocean gyres e.g. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
From the GGP's root comment:
Diamonds aren't that rare
There's a fun heist movie based on how the cartel simply hoards huge amounts of the stuff in order to keep the prices high.
"11 Harrowhouse" Plot [wikipedia.org]
95 minute stream [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Thursday May 31 2018, @01:08PM (1 child)
Doubly baffled here. These things don't even have burn-out-your-retina blue LEDs, IoT embedded CPUs that collect valuable personal data, non-replaceable batteries, and they've not got much blockchain in them.
They are really behind the times. They could have consumertards throwing these things away every single week.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:41PM
"$Product is forever" is likely used in marketing schools everywhere to assess incoming students: whoever has the hardest time with the concept is likely to get the best grades.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday May 31 2018, @01:35PM
The marker isn't to stop cheating (a cheating partner can of course remove the ring), but to issue an implied threat of "If you go after this person, there will be an angry partner to deal with."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday May 31 2018, @02:11PM (5 children)
It's De Beers's fault. They created a huge marketing campaign beginning in the late 1930s to convince consumers that engagement rings should be expensive (at least a month's salary) and that a diamond was the only acceptable stone for one. So blame them. It originated with them.
Some people actually prefer to send the message to "keep away" for themselves. Others think it will actually make them look more desireable (paradoxically), a sort of "forbidden fruit." (I knew a single guy who wore a wedding ring to try to pick up women; he claimed he was more successful with it.)
Anyhow, I think it's important to make a distinction between an ENGAGEMENT ring (often quite expensive and with prominent diamond due to aforementioned De Beers marketing, but not traditionally so extravagant) and wedding rings (which are frequently simple bands and often relatively inexpensive).
(Score: 3, Informative) by MadTinfoilHatter on Thursday May 31 2018, @02:48PM (2 children)
That seems to be the American way of doing it. In this part of the world (northern Europe) it's the other way around: The engagement rings (which both parties get) are typically plain rings with no stones, whereas the wedding ring (which only the wife gets) typically is a bit fancier with some (usually fairly small) stones, but even those rarely cost more than the two engagement rings combined. The ma$$ively expen$ive rings with huge diamonds seem to be a very American thing. In other parts of the world De Beers has been far less successful.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday May 31 2018, @03:16PM
Don't spend loads on something she might hate.
Engagement = surprise = plain and simple, yet exciting anyway.
Wedding = planned = she can choose something fancy that she will like.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:45PM
Over many years, there is a good chance that a stone (diamond) will pop loose. The setting will probably survive a few months of engagement.
The stone will damage all sorts of things. You can scrape your eye with it. You can snag a chunk out of your favorite sweater. You can scratch all sorts of things you might care about.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 31 2018, @06:49PM (1 child)
>It's De Beers's fault. They created a huge marketing campaign beginning in the late 1930s to convince consumers
> that engagement rings should be expensive (at least a month's salary) and that a diamond was the only
> acceptable stone for one. So blame them. It originated with them.
My favorite part about it is that most cultures have always had it the other way: Take my girl, sir, and I'll give you two camels, three sheep, five gold pieces, this sculpted jade piece, and grandma's silver butter knife.
Why did the guys start accepting that it's our turn to pay the dowry?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @07:47PM
It isn't a dowry, it is a small guarantee that if things go bad the woman will have something expensive to sell off. Still, its probably more about the marketing campaign.
Ah to live in the post-consumer world. Maybe I'll live long enough.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday May 31 2018, @02:52PM (3 children)
The only reason I'd buy my g/f a ring is if she lost or permanently damaged one of the rings she wears presently, hand-made ones from local tribal craftsmen from various parts of the world, effectively irreplaceable as a unique piece of art with a story behind it, but we could commision something similar locally I'm sure, we are friends with several local jewelry makers (who of course have many connections, so our choice of materials and techniques isn't limited). But while she has the current ones, there's no need for a new one. God we're boring and practical, but we like it that way!
But the bling ring thing is fairly explainable - it's simple showing off, showing off your mate, that is, not the ring: "I hooked one with so many resources he can waste it on ooooh-shiny". Spendthriftiness is a classic so-called "costly signal" in human mate selection. (Which is all fun and games until the loan needs to paid off, in some cases.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @05:56PM
You might want to look into the legal side of things you don't have covered there, things such as hospital visitation and decision making, inheritance (those 50% of your company and flats for example), offspring and maybe even taxation.
The "marriage certificate" governments offer are really about the civil union (the legal bits) part of the equation, not marriage (a religious concept). The marriage part is skippable if you aren't of a religious bent, but the civil union part protects the surviving partner's interests should disaster strike.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:26PM (1 child)
Interesting definition of "local" you have there...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 01 2018, @05:17AM
Unless the tribal craftsman is smeared through a large portion of space-time, they're local. Kinda redundant.
(Score: 2) by J053 on Thursday May 31 2018, @08:44PM