MAM
AAAI to hold seminar ‘The Block’ later this month
MUMBAI: The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has announced that they will hold a 10-session 30-hour experience, The Block The Triple A Creative Workshop.
The aim is to help mid-level creative people in advertising agencies become creative directors. Going by popular belief that creativity cannot be taught, but an environment has to be created to nurture it, the course’s faculty are 10 senior creative directors and ad film producers. Each of them will take one three-hour session every alternative Friday at the World Trade Centre Mumbai. The programme kicks off on 19 March.
The faculty includes Rediffusion’s R Balakrishnan, Sumantra Ghosal, Preeti Vyas Giannetti, Prasoon Joshi, Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Pandey. They will share their personal experiences, showcase their star campaigns and will cover subjects like: extracting a provocative brief, selling a creative campaign internally and to the client, connecting with the consumer’s heart, creating for sales, creating for awards and common pitfalls.
In a release, AAAI stated that the format and syllabus of the workshop was arrived at in order to bring out the participants’ own creativity and help them develop a point of view.
MAM
De Beers launches ‘A Diamond Is Forever’ centenary book
Visual retrospective traces 100 years of iconic slogan and cultural impact.
MUMBAI: De Beers just dropped a century’s worth of sparkle between two covers because when a four-word line becomes forever, even the book needs a forever title. De Beers Group has released A Diamond Is Forever: The Making of a Cultural Icon 1926–2026, a landmark visual retrospective celebrating 100 years of shaping the modern perception of natural diamonds. The book traces how the brand transformed diamonds from elite heirlooms into universal symbols of love, commitment and personal achievement, with rare archival material, campaign highlights and cultural commentary.
At its core is the legendary 1947 slogan “A Diamond Is Forever,” penned by N.W. Ayer copywriter Frances Gerety. The four words redefined diamonds as eternal promises, earning the title of the 20th century’s greatest advertising slogan from Advertising Age in 1999. The book explores how this idea and others like the “Two Months’ Salary” guideline and the “Right Hand Ring” influenced social rituals, female independence and consumer behaviour worldwide, including in India, where diamonds shifted from gold-centric traditions to emotionally resonant milestones.
Beyond marketing, it showcases collaborations with artists like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Raoul Dufy, alongside icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Later campaigns, including the 1990s “Shadows” series set to Karl Jenkins’ Palladio, reinforced diamonds as timeless and unique. The narrative also addresses today’s focus on provenance, sustainability and ethical stewardship, positioning natural diamonds as symbols of both enduring love and responsible luxury.
The book arrives as De Beers marks a century of innovation in luxury marketing, from the Great Depression to the era of conscious consumption, offering a rare window into one of advertising’s most enduring brand stories.
In a world where trends fade fast, De Beers didn’t just sell diamonds, it sold forever, and now it’s bound the proof in pages that will outlast even the hardest carat.
