The Engagements Read Free Page A

sensitive about it. In 1945, Frances created a new campaign, unlike anything that had ever been seen in American magazines before. The ads celebrated the weddings of real American GIs who were returning home to civilian life, and the girls they had left behind. They featured illustrations of actual ceremonies andstories about the couples. At the same time, important information was given about diamonds.
    During the war, Ayer made increasing use of women. Out of nec Oppenheimerall, and essity, they were hiring girls on, and not just in clerical jobs and the steno pool, but in executive and semi-executive roles. There was Dolores in business production, and Sally in the media department. Two women in accounts, and Dorothy in public relations, of course.
    In the copy department, there were now a total of thirteen men and three women. The women were meant to provide the feminine point of view when it came to creating campaigns for products that females would buy, or at least influence the purchase of.
    For De Beers, Frances’s own desires were no help. Instead, she studied her coworkers and her friends and her roommates. What did they want most? Well, that was easy—they wanted marriage. What did they fear? They feared being alone. The war had only heightened both sensations. She played off of that. She tried to say that the diamond itself could prevent a tragic outcome:
The engagement diamond on her finger is bright as a tear—but not with sadness. Like her eyes it holds a promise—of cool dawns together, of life grown rich and full and tranquil. Its lovely assurance shines through all the hours of waiting, to kindle with joy and precious meaning at the beginning of their new life to be
.
    Much of the time, the ads appealed to men, since they would be the ones buying the rings. They did a lot of rather fancy advertising about gentlemen—about good taste and accomplishment, and how both ideas could be conveyed through the ring you gave your beloved, even if you didn’t actually have either one.
    A friend had recalled one night during the war that her beau wrote to say he was worried about what might happen to her if he didn’t come home. Mortality was on his mind, and, Frances reasoned, the minds of others like him. And so she wrote,
Few men can found a city, name a new star, shatter an atom. Few build for themselves a monument so tall that future generations may point to it from far off, saying, “Look, that was our father. There is his name. That was his lifework.” Diamonds are the most imperishable record a man may leave of his personal life
.
    It was all very dark and heavy-handed. Gerry Lauck thought it was brilliant.
    Frances closed her eyes for a moment. She should sleep some, or else she’d look a fright at the morning meeting. But what to do about the signature line? She arranged a handful of magazines in the shape of a fan on the floor, all open to her ads.
    In
Vogue: Your diamonds glow with loveliness at every wearing. Theirs is a timeless charm transcending every change in fashion
.
    In
Collier’s: Wear your diamonds as the night wears its stars, ever and always … for their beauty is as timeless
.
    In
Life: In the engagement diamond on her finger, the memories will shine forever
.
    She had clearly long been surfeited by this idea of permanence. She closed her eyes and said, “Dear God, send me a line.”
    Frances scribbled something on a scrap of paper, taking it to bed with her and placing it on the nightstand. She lay down fully dressed, without getting under the covers, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
    Three hours later, she woke to the alarm and looked first thing at the words she had written:
A Diamond Is Forever
.
    She thought it would do just fine.
    As her feet hit the cold hardwood, she heard Ann in the hallway making for the bathroom. In her roommate’s casMen made mistakes and when they asked forgiveness, women forgave. It happened every day.d himselfe, the engagement couldn’t come