`Diamond Time'

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which time is revisioned within the marketing discourses of the diamond trade. Time, it is argued, is a key component in the ways in which consumers are interpellated as buyers of diamonds. The article explores a series of time `frames' in order to excavate the ways in which time is used in marketing rhetoric and strategies. Crucial to the strategy is the rupture between labour time and `diamond time' which concentrates upon romantic evocations and the role of diamonds as signifiers of love.