Who are De Beers?

The world's biggest diamond-mining and selling company. They are well known for their various advertising campaigns, most notably the 'A diamond is forever' campaign. (This was voted the best advertising slogan ever in 1999.)

TASK

With a friend, briefly sketch out an idea for a print-based advert (or an advert campaign) for diamond jewelery. Treat this as practice for the practical task in the exam - it should take no more than 20 minutes.

1. Discuss your idea. Who is your audience? (Who are diamonds likely to be targeted at?) What things - ideas, colours, design styles - are likely to appeal to this audience?
2. Sketch your idea.
3. Annotate your idea, explaining who the audience is and how you have attempted to appeal to them. What is your line of appeal? How have you represented the people in the advert (assuming there are any?)

Explain your ideas to another pair. Are the ideas similar? Are there common, obvious ways to market and sell diamonds? What are they?



Did your ideas look anything like THESE?

TASK

Choose one of the De Beers adverts and write a brief (15 minute) textual analysis of it; focus on TWO of these areas:

Palette
Representation
Graphics
Design and layout



Did you emphasise the VALUE of diamonds? Would it surprise you to learn that diamonds aren't all that rare? Or that De Beers, and the cartel they dominate, effectively control the world's diamond supply and 'make' them 'rare'?

Did you emphasise the semiotic (symbolic) value of diamonds? That is, the association with love, romance and so on? Would it shock you to learn that De Beers pretty much invented this idea in the 1800s? That they created the notion of giving a diamond ring as an engagement gift?

Did you associate diamonds with rich, glamorous people? Would it amaze you to learn that De Beers deliberately created this link by giving huge diamonds to movie actresses in the 1930s, and paying to have diamond-shopping scenes included in movies?

De Beers are best known for the fact that they took a product - the diamond - and created an image, an appeal and an audience for it; so successfully, indeed, that many people don't realise that what they 'know' about diamonds is both wrong and created by De Beers.

TASK

Choose one of these companies (or one of your own) and create a short presentation about how they market their products. Focus on print ads and limit yourself to a couple of examples. Detailed analysis is of extreme importance here.

LEVIS

APPLE

NIKE

FCUK

MCDONALDS

L'OREAL

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