DIAMONDS: GREED IS FOREVER: a sad story of human greed and the revolting conditions of exploitation.

The diamond “invention”, the idea that diamonds are scarce and valuable is an entirely fabricated idea. Diamonds are neither scarce nor valuable. The illusion of scarcity was perpetuated by the creation of a company, the De Beers company, which took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade. The illusion of their value was fabricated by inten-sive advertising campaigns that have succeeded in converting tiny crystals of carbon into a universally recognized symbol of love, wealth, and status.The diamond “idea” fails all ethical tests, whether it be pricing and misrepresentation of real value, or perhaps more importantly the terrible exploitation and sufferings by whole populations who saw their villages ravaged by brutal, bloody civil wars because of dia-monds. Design ideas can have dire consequences, and unfortunately diamond production and the misleading advertisement campaigns that are associated with it are a prime example. What is the ethical responsibility of the De Beers company, and the designers who helped create and perpetuate the “Diamond Myth”, and finally what are the consequenc-es either for specific populations or for consumers in general? The Ethical responsibility of De Beer Company & the creation of a myth:Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in India and Brazil, and the entire world production of diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their invest-ment was endangered since the price of diamonds depended almost entirely on their scarcity. 1

Control over the supply of diamonds was crucial to perpetuate the illusion of scarcity, so major investors in diamond mining created The De Beers company which proved to be the most successful “cartel” in the history of modern commerce. The company took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, and either directly owned or controlled all the diamond mines in southern Africa, and also owned diamond trading companies in England, Portugal, Israel, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland.The collusion between a client and a designer:De Beers total control over the supply of diamonds was not enough. The cartel had to create a demand for it by converting those tiny crystals of carbon into a universal symbol

1 (Epstein, Edward Jay “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?”, Atlantic maga-zine (feb.1982), http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond)

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of love, wealth and status sought after by those who want to express their love and show off their wealth and status. Through aggressive advertising, a leading advertising company in New York called N.W.Ayer succeeded in “romanticizing” diamonds, and associating it with eternal love and commitment. “Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds as an insepa-rable part of courtship and married life, endowed with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them”. 2

What De Beers needed was a slogan for diamonds that expressed both the theme of romance and legitimacy. And N. W. Ayer delivered when a copywriter came up with the caption “A Diamond Is Forever,” which was scrawled on the bottom of a picture of two young lovers on a honeymoon. Even though diamonds can in fact be shattered, chipped, discolored, or incinerated to ash, the concept of eternity perfectly captured the magical qualities that the advertising agency wanted to attribute to diamonds. Within a year, “A Diamond Is Forever” became the official motto of De Beers.In the year 2000, Advertising Age magazine named “A Diamond Is Forever” the best ad-vertising slogan of the twentieth century. 3In its 1947 strategy plan, the advertising agency strongly emphasized a psychological approach. “We are dealing with a problem in mass psychology. We seek to ... strengthen the tradition of the diamond engagement ring -- to make it a psychological necessity capable of competing successfully at the retail level with utility goods and services....The agency also came up with a new form of advertising which has been widely imi-tated ever since. There was no direct sale to be made. There was no brand name to be impressed on the public mind. There was simply an idea -- the eternal emotional value surrounding the diamond.” 4

The advertising agency also succeeded in exploiting the relatively new medium of motion pictures. Movie idols, the symbol of romance for the mass audience, would be given dia-monds to use as their symbols of indestructible love. In addition, the agency suggested offering stories and society photographs to selected magazines and newspapers which would reinforce the link between diamonds and romance. Stories would stress the size of diamonds that celebrities presented to their loved ones, and photographs would conspic-uously show the glittering stone on the hand of a well-known woman. Fashion designers 2 Ayer to the throne, New York Magazine Feb 29, 1988.3 The Atlantic, “the Diamond Myth,” Atlantic magazine (December 2006), http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612u/diamond-flashback).

4 Fujii, Hideki, 1934-. 1985. “{Untitled: DeBeers diamonds and jewelery} [art reproduction].” Graphis 41, 10. Art Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2009).

would talk on radio programs about the “trend towards diamonds” that Ayer planned to start.5

Ethical consequences: In the mid-1990s, diamonds extracted from some African villages in Sierra Leone, Gabon and Angola, often in conditions of terrible exploitation, have been used by rebel move-ments to fund brutal, bloody civil wars. Children were kidnapped and turned into killers, hands were amputated, whole populations were driven out of their villages, and were left homeless and fearful for their lives. And while the people suffered the horrors of civil war, “diamonds mined illegally flowed freely into the world diamond market. The estimate is that, maybe, 15% of the world diamond market was made up by blood diamonds. Blood diamonds mined in the 1990s still grace the hands and necks of unsuspecting customers all over the world,” 6 Blood diamonds also known as conflict diamonds represented the greatest threat to De Beers fortunes. Thanks to a movie that came out in 2006 and bears the same name “Blood Diamonds”, the public became aware of all those atrocities, and De Beers were criticized for their indirect role in those bloody wars.Concerned about the negative publicity, De Beers launched a new website DIAMOND-FACTS.ORG to publicize the benefits the diamond industry brings to the countries in which it operates and to outline measures to eliminate conflict diamonds. It also redi-rected its efforts into marketing only diamonds which came from its own mines. Today, the company certifies that every diamond it sells is conflict-free and child labor free.7 Designers responsibility is to make the buyer aware of the product or service, no mat-ter the intent, whether it be false advertising, or misleading statements. DeBeers drilled into our heads the connection between love and diamonds, due to relentless times of campaigning this idea. A designer’s goal is to create a memorable brand the “diamond is forever” campaign established great brand loyalty and brand awareness. 8People world-wide jumped on the diamond bandwagon to become a part of the social statistic, that if you own a diamond, you too must be loved. All advertisements & designers to have to take into account that “advertising must tell a consumer benefit story. ” Why should you fall into this diamond hype you ask? ”It’s all about love,” as stated in New York Maga-5 Epstein, Edward Jay “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?”, Atlantic magazine (feb.1982), http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond)6stated from the source: http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/interesting-documentary/blood-diamonds.html) 7 William Reno, Warlord politics and African states.( Lynne Reinner publishers, 1998)

8 Campbell, Greg. 2002. Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones. New. York: Westview (Perseus)

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zine. This forced connection between love and a tangible object proves that advertising g design may sway people to become brainwashed into thinking something is valuable, based on materialistic value only. Designers hid the truth while promoting their product, something that proves to be risky in a designers field. Lets take the tradition of engage-ment rings & the tradition that it should be of the spouse’s two months salary, this so called “tradition could not have been made without advertising itself. It is the designers responsibility to market this tradition to gain publicity and increase buyers to purchase the products. The diamonds are always shown in a great light, on a pedestal, masking the diamonds insignificant value. Being marketed as genuine & “a girls best friend“ are performances made by ad agencies, it is an act needed to promote buying & selling of the product. Sometimes in advertising, hiding the truth isn’t lying, it is just a way to upsell a prouct...after all what the consumer doesn’t know won’t hurt them. The tables instantly turn when the truth comes out though, bringing a new truth to advertising, which is as long as the consumer believes the product or service is legitimate, the more they trust the brand, the more they are willing to spend on the product & believe any fabrications that may stand. The designers/ ad executives job is to fabricate their product in a bright light, in turn gaining the recognition they need to build brand awareness. 9 Ethical Responsibil-ity of buyers: Thanks in part to international cooperation between governments, the diamond industry, retailer jewelers and non-government organizations such as Global Witness and Part-nership Africa Canada, vast improvements have been made in the fight against conflict diamonds. Today, the diamond industry markets its gems as “ethical diamonds” and “ethical engage-ment rings”, and offers buyers assurances that they are conflict-neutral.So, Should you buy a diamond? That’s up to the consumers, who should insist that jewelers show them proof that their diamonds are conflict free. But we are still left with the problem of pricing. We know that diamonds have no intrinsic value, they are just tiny crystals of carbon that exist everywhere where carbon exists, endowed however with magical attributes such as “Eternity”, “For Ever” and “Love”..So ask yourself, are diamonds still appealing?

9 Macnab, Geoffrey. 2007. “Blood Diamond.” Sight & Sound 17, no. 2: 46-47. Art Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2009).

Ayer to the throne, New York Magazine Feb 29, 1988.

http://www.adiamondisforever.com/#/home

Campbell, Greg. 2002. Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World’s Most Precious Stones. New. York: Westview (Perseus)

Epstein, Edward Jay “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?”, Atlantic magazine (feb.1982), http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond)

Fujii, Hideki, 1934-. 1985. “{Untitled: DeBeers diamonds and jewelery} [art reproduction].” Graphis 41, 10. Art Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2009).

http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/interesting-documentary/blood-diamonds.html)

Macnab, Geoffrey. 2007. “Blood Diamond.” Sight & Sound 17, no. 2: 46-47. Art Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2009).

Stephan, Robert. 1995. “Grinding and polishing glass with diamonds.” Stained Glass (Kansas City, MO: 1990) 90, 123-127. Art Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2009).

Stuart Reid, “the Diamond Myth,” Atlantic magazine (December 2006), http://www.the-atlantic.com/doc/200612u/diamond-flashback).

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