HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about an advertising expression HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Zimbabwe. Shadreck Chikwavaire asks about the meaning of the saying diamonds are forever. Many people around the world know that expression. It is the name of a popular book and movie about the fictional spy, James Bond. The theme song to the movie also became popular. Shirley Bassey sang it.
(MUSIC) Diamonds are minerals that first formed billions of years ago deep under the ground. They result when pressure and heat act on the substance carbon.
A diamond is the hardest substance found in nature. But the mineral can be cut into different shapes and used to make costly jewelry such as diamond rings. In the United States, it is traditional for a man to give the woman he plans to marry a diamond engagement ring. People also wear jewelry made of diamonds on their ears, necks and wrists.
People are willing to pay high prices for diamond jewelry. One company controls most of the diamond market -- the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company of South Africa. Reports say the company used to keep diamonds mined in many countries and released a limited number for sale each year. Officials say the company does not do business that way anymore.
The De Beers Company first created the saying "A Diamond Is Forever." In the late nineteen forties, De Beers hired an advertising agency to help increase its sale of diamonds. The agency N.W. Ayer developed an extremely successful campaign linking diamonds and romantic love.
The campaign invented the slogan A Diamond Is Forever, meaning that a diamond is a never-ending sign of love. It also meant that a diamond would always keep its value. The company continues to use the slogan in its advertising more than fifty years later. And reports say it has been used to advertise diamonds in at least twenty-nine languages.
The advertising business also recognized the huge success of the saying. In two thousand, Advertising Age magazine named "A Diamond Is Forever" the best advertising slogan of the twentieth century. HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.
