Where diamond advertising needs to go

Last week, I attended an event held by De Beers/Forevermark here in New York City called (and hash-tagged, naturally) #TheOne, which references the diamond brand’s new holiday commercial (It’s a Long Journey to Become the One) and, with it, the return of “A Diamond is Forever.”

At the event, I got into a discussion with a fellow journalist who’s covered jewelry and watches for a long time.

When I asked his opinion of the commercial, he gave a sort of lukewarm shrug and then made an absolutely brilliant point. De Beers should have taken this opportunity to show where Forevermark diamonds come from and how they are helping the communities where they are mined, instead of going back to their old advertising agency, JWT, and rehashing an old, though undoubtedly very successful, tagline in A Diamond is Forever.

He pointed out the success watch company Shinola has had in emphasizing its origins and the story behind its brand: It’s made in Detroit and employs people there. It’s doing its part to help bring industry back to the once-mighty Motor City, which has fallen on hard times over the past few decades.

Its efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. AdWeek dubbed Shinola the “coolest brand in America” earlier this year,  a move that is indicative of what people now value in brands—authenticity and giving back.

Later on in the evening, as I made my way into the back corner of the event space where there was a display of Forevermark jewelry guests could try on, I grabbed a few minutes with Forevermark U.S. President Charles Stanley and brought this point up to him.

Why didn’t Forevermark emphasize its responsibly sourced origins in this year’s holiday advertising campaign? They certainly can go that way, and, as it turns out, perhaps they will.

As I learned from Stanley and others at the event, De Beers hired a National Geographic photographer and videographer to travel to Africa and document the good Forevermark diamonds do there, specifically for the environment and the advancement of women.

That photographer was, quite fittingly, Annie Griffiths, one of the first women to shoot for National Geographic. Griffiths has worked in more than 100 countries for some of the industry’s top magazines and also is committed to aid work. She started Ripple Effect, a collective of photojournalists who are documenting how climate change is impacting women worldwide, and collaborated