De Beers' Hollywood Bribery

Shaan Puri shares how De Beers influenced Hollywood to establish diamond engagement rings as a cultural norm.

"From what I remember reading about this, they went to Hollywood and they basically were giving directors diamonds saying in the key moment, in the climax moment where the man professes his love, he's gotta give her a diamond ring. They embedded it in Hollywood in movies by literally bribing the directors in order for them to show that.

So then you're watching the movie and that now influences culture. That's how you do it - the big romantic gesture is to literally get down on one knee and hand her a diamond ring. They used kind of top-down influence to do it. And then scarcity, right? Because they limit the supply. So all the core marketing things - influence, social proof, that frame 'diamonds are forever', scarcity - they kind of use all of it."