In marketing there are two games being played. The short game sells attention. The long game sells belief.
Most marketers know the story of A Diamond Is Forever. Fewer understand the strategy that made it possible. De Beers didn’t just advertise diamonds. They controlled the mines. They managed supply. They shaped perception. The ad connected emotion to a product, but the structure behind it created the illusion of rarity. The ad lit the fire. The structure kept it burning.
Now think about oil for a second. What if the same kind of long-term brand control was used there too? What if oil’s value came not just from its utility, but from a carefully engineered belief system?
We’ll come back to oil later. First, a quick refresher.
Diamonds: one of the great long games
In the early 1900s, De Beers dominated the diamond trade. They could have flooded the market, but they didn’t. They held inventory, controlled mines, distribution, and let scarcity do the storytelling.
By the 1930s, demand was softening, so they hired an ad agency. That’s where the famous line came from: A Diamond Is Forever. They tied diamonds to marriage, love, and social proof. Overnight, the emotional meaning outweighed the material cost.
It worked because they already controlled the conditions of belief. The campaign didn’t create scarcity. It monetized it.
That’s the difference between marketing and architecture. Marketing creates moments. Architecture creates myths.
Oil: the modern myth
Now imagine this. Suppose oil isn’t a fossil fuel in the way we’ve always been told. Suppose the Earth regenerates it slowly, deep underground. Some scientists call this the “abiogenic” theory. Mainstream geology rejects it.
But let’s play a thought experiment. If you were one of the few people with the power to shape how the world thinks about oil, and you knew that oil might actually be renewable, here’s how you might play the long game.
1. Own the language.
You’d make fossil fuel a universal term. Put it in every textbook. Make the origin story feel unshakable. Once people believe something is finite, they’ll protect it, trade it, and speculate on it.
2. Control visibility.
You’d control how much of the supply the world sees. Announce limited reserves. Talk about depletion and drilling challenges. Make discovery sound like a miracle. The less people see of the resource, the more valuable it becomes.
3. Let volatility prove your point.
You’d let prices rise and fall just enough to remind everyone of risk. When prices spike, it feels like proof the world is running out. When they drop, it feels like a temporary reprieve. Either way, belief tightens.
4. Fund both sides of the story.
You’d invest in “green” energy too. Wind, solar, batteries. Each one still needs oil to mine, smelt, transport, and maintain. You’d profit from both the fear of running out and the push to replace what you sell.
5. Shape the institutions.
You’d fund think tanks, environmental programs, and research that reinforce the same narrative. You wouldn’t need to control them directly. You’d just create the conditions where their work sustains your value.
Over time, a system like that doesn’t even need secret meetings or signed pacts. The incentives line up on their own. The people high enough to see the pattern all benefit from protecting it. Whether they’re sitting in a boardroom, on a jet, or out on a yacht, they understand the same truth: if the world keeps believing the story, everybody wins. Once the narrative becomes the market’s reality, silence is strategy.
6. Seed the conspiracy.
You might even encourage people to call the alternative theory crazy. Let the argument live online. Every time someone debates it, the myth gets stronger. The loudest denials sound like proof of authenticity.
That’s how you would engineer the perception of scarcity if you wanted to build a hundred-year brand.
And that’s the point. Whether or not oil regenerates doesn’t even matter. What matters is the belief. Because belief shapes demand, policy, and identity.
The lesson behind the myth
This is the part most marketers miss: psychology of control and belief. The ad world obsesses over clicks, influencers, and short-term attention. The real power is in the unseen system that makes people believe your story automatically, and in the rare few who can envision, design, and lead the execution of it.
De Beers did it with diamonds. The oil industry does it with energy. Modern companies do it with data, status, and convenience. Every era has its version of scarcity, and every smart strategist finds a way to own it.
The long game isn’t just storytelling. It’s market design.
The short game gets attention. The long game builds reality.
That’s how belief becomes brand.
When the Long Game Meets Technology
Even the strongest myths eventually face disruption. Lab-grown diamonds, synthetic markets, and AI-driven transparency have stripped away much of the illusion that made the De Beers strategy work for nearly a century. What once felt eternal now competes with algorithms and chemistry.
Next up: Part 2 - The New Game: Controlling the Narrative in an Age of AI
How algorithms, influencers, and machine-driven media have turned brand control into psychological warfare - and why advertising still matters more than ever.
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About the Author
Sheldon Charron is a Marketing Strategist, Brand Architect, and Product Innovator with more than 20 years of experience leading growth, positioning, and storytelling across industries including government, economic development, tourism, hospitality, health and wellness, outdoor sports, agriculture, technology, construction, real estate, SaaS, Artificial Intelligence, and defense. He has guided startups and established companies through brand transformation, funding rounds, and multimillion-dollar scale-ups. Sheldon specializes in building the systems that turn strategy into sustained market dominance.