As I was doing homework the other night, sitting at my desk, I glanced over at my bulletin board. Right in front of me was a magazine clipping that my mom had cut out and sent to me of a De Beers ad. It read:
Mountains have crumbled
Glaciers have melted
Continents have drifted
Diamonds have remained the same.
Clearly, Mother Nature is a romantic.
I love this ad – it’s the romantic in me. Yet as I sat there looking at it that night I felt an overwhelming compulsion to take it down and throw it away. I couldn’t help but think that this company, while capitalizing on the image of diamonds created by marketers is also at the same time capitalizing on the fact that few people realize the company’s intense and deep involvement with conflict stones. I looked back at the brilliant copy and then at the diamond ring that was shown at the bottom of the ad. Staring at the ring I suddenly realized that my entire passion and infatuation with diamonds had been tainted. I can no longer look at a ring, a necklace, earrings, anything made from the precious stone without wondering if it came illegally from some war torn area in Africa. I also began to realize that my anger towards The De Beers Group was intensifying. I can no longer respect their advertising, let alone the company. If I never would have researched this topic more, that ad would have still been posted on my wall, and I wouldn’t have thought twice about being skeptical of the company’s stance against selling conflict diamonds. Looking at that ad I also realized that I want the purpose of this blog to not only to educate about the issue, but to expose The De Beers Group. Even if only my classmates read this blog, that’s at least 20 people I can hope to convince not to buy from the company. (And I think everyone knows how strong word of mouth is….)
It’s on now De Beers. Are you ready to be cracked open and have all your skeletons in the closet revealed?
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