Ran into this ad as I was reading a New York Times article online:
I can’t help but think this is a rather transparent attempt by De Beers to replace the “blood diamonds” image with a more positive association between diamonds and Africa: Wakanda Forever.
I would not use the word "replace", rather I think they are "telling".
Blood diamonds were a thing in the 1990's to early 2000's.
Slave diamonds were a thing in the 1800's.
Today diamonds in Africa are good for people.
And De Beers is a totally different company. (They were never part of the blood diamond story, but did look the other way back in their maintain marketing of 80% of diamonds stupidity).
You may not know they are part owned by African governments and have their HQ in Botswana?
Today you can find dozens of De Beers do good projects in Africa and for artisanal miners.
This one does not register for me at all. There must be 100 more prominent "forevers" than Wakanda.
I saw the first Black Panther and did not love it, so there's that. Any magical or vaguely interesting technological phenomenon -- "It's the vibranium!" What a lazy-a$$ cinematic universe.
@Garry H (Cut Nut) alluded to Debswana and Namdeb. Those partnerships brought sweeping positive change decades ago, but much of what's covered in the article above only occurred after the Oppenheimer dynasty ended in 2011.
Most significantly, the shifting of DeBeers' HQ - and hundreds of jobs - from London to Gaborone in 2014 signaled, to me, a shift in philosophy (and philanthropy).
Great stuff John.
But this just hit my feeds - it is a 4 minute read and here is an exert: Without the Oppenheimers, Anglo and De Beers have shifted their management focus from profit and control to the new ESG way of life. The move that should have attracted most attention from the diamond world was the sale by Anglo American of its thermal coal operations. Its chairman explained that it was part of "transitioning our portfolio towards those products that are essential for a low carbon future".