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Original Advertisement

This is an advertisement for diamond pendants available only at Zales: The Diamond Store. The advertisement features the famous caucasian model, Jessica Simpson, who is bathing in a bathtub full of diamonds. The main underlying issue with this advertisement is that it depicts diamonds as a luxurious consumer good (which can only be afforded by people in the West), which masks the numerous ethical problems connected to diamond mining, and global disparities in wealth. Cursory research on Zales indicates that the company only sources diamonds from ethical supply chains, which the company promotes on its website. However, this claim is incredibly misleading due to the fact that this information comes from the Responsible Jewellery Council, which was created by 14 jewelry companies, including Zales, in 2014. There is ample evidence illustrating that the organization’s responsible jewelry certification borders on meaningless. As Choty (2019) states, the organization has “written an encyclical, defining a “responsible jewelry” doctrine to their 1,100-plus members. Foundational to this doctrine is continuity, embracing a conservatism that protects their assets and current business practices while absolving the past.” Similarly, the Kimberly Process, which was established by the diamond industry in 2003 to certify diamonds as conflict-free “remains riddled with loopholes, unable to stop many diamonds mined in war zones or under other egregious circumstances from being sold in international markets” (Baker & Tshikapa, 2018).

Therefore, we have this advertisement declaring that diamonds are a girl’s best friend with a beautiful caucasian model bathing in what amounts to millions of dollars of diamonds from a company that hides behind bogus ethically sourced diamond certification when in reality companies, such as Zales, continue to use dubious supply chains that are soaked in blood, poverty, and mercury poisoning.

Jammed Zales Advertisement

By creating this cultural jam of the Zales’ advertisement, my intention is to reveal what lies behind the diamond jewelry endorsed by Jessica Simpson, and sold by companies, such as Zales. Despite the diamond industry’s promotion of their improvements in sourcing diamonds, the reality is much different. The intention of this cultural jam is to reveal three distinct human rights violations that the diamond industry is complicit in promoting. The first human rights issue is blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in conflict zones. The added text “African War Zone” highlights the blood diamond problem. There are numerous problems with blood diamonds. One problem is that in conflict zones, it is often the case the diamond miners are conflict slaves or very poorly paid miners, including children. In the jammed advertisement, this is represented by the bloodied hands, which represent these exploited slaves and workers. Another problem with conflict diamonds is the proceeds are used to by weapons, which then injury and kill poor people in the conflict zone. One symbol of this in my jammed advertisement is the bloodied dollar bills. A more explicit representation of this is the girl in the top right-hand corner who has an amputated arm. She lost her arm as a result of a blood diamond fuelled conflict. I placed her partially over Jessica Simpson’s face to symbolize the guilty conscience diamond buyers should have. Yet another social justice issue connected to blood diamonds, and diamond mining generally, is mercury poisoning. This is represented by the deformed hands and feet of African children overlaid on Jessica Simpson’s name.

The fact that the entire advertisement has been covered in blood  shows how much blood this 70-billion dollar industry spills across Africa on an annual basis. The bloodied hand holding the bloodied diamond draws a direct connection between diamonds and the suffering they cause or are connected to in Africa. The original advertisement uses the old phrase, “Diamond are a girl’s best friend.” I altered this text to read, “Diamond’s are a girl’s best enemy” to draw the connection between this luxury item, which is marketed to women in the West, and the amount of suffering that girls and women in Africa experience because of diamond mining. This suffering includes dangerous mining work for little to no money; mercury poisoning, including the concomitant birth defects; and death and maiming because of war. Therefore, my culture jam reveals all of the disparities and horrors lurking behind the original advertisement.