James Bond’s Diamonds are Forever: What is your forever investment?

Is what we consider to be “forever” just a big marketing ploy? My family’s seventh James Bond retrospective excursion has me seeking an answer.

Diamonds are Forever sees Sir Sean Connery wooed back to the series with an unprecedented $1.5 million offer after Lazenby left the series following dubious advice from his agent.  The series officially enters the 70s with an unfortunate camp style to continue the fight against SPECTRE villain Bloefeld, thwart diamond smuggling, and stop satellite laser beams.  Once again, I search for meaning beyond the slightly ridiculous moon buggy car chase and the grand finale onboard an oil rig that occurred decades before anyone would think “BP Oil Disaster”.

Marketing forever

Reflecting on the film’s title, the notion that “diamonds are forever” came about when the diamond cartel De Beers experienced a threat to their monopoly in the form of weakening demand in the late 30s. Then 29-year old son of the De Beers founder Harry Oppenheimer sought assistance from the first advertising agency in the United States, N. W. Ayer & Son. The agency successfully defined global demand through the campaign that “A diamond is forever”, even as the cartel controlled supply through stockpiling diamonds. The marketing campaign turned an idea into reality, and by the 70s the title of the James Bond film became a statement of fact.

Similar to my Goldfinger thoughts on who determines that gold has value, I consider to what extent media and society influence our desires. We see a similar pattern with cigarettes. Over US$240 billion was spent over six decades convincing people they want to smoke, and we now spend counter-billions educating about smoking risks.

While diamonds won’t give you cancer, I question whether they are “forever”. They certainly did not help the now-defunct agency N. W. Ayer and son. Harry Oppenheimer passed away in 2000, so I don’t expect they worked for him either.

Marketing agents count on our propensity to think of physical objects such as diamonds as “forever investments”.  Some even go so far as converting cremated remains of loved ones into diamonds so we can wear them around for that little bit longer.  Whatever thing you acquire, the adage that “you cannot take it with you” holds true.

Others choose a flavour of spirituality  as a means of investing in something that lasts beyond this life. I do not disagree with the premise as a means of determining what is real. Ideally, those making the decision for an afterlife investment would make more than a one-off single deposit and support others in our pre-eternity experience while they are still on the Earth.

Choose your forever investment

It is to this point that I consider what will last forever. Based on my very brief time on the planet, I observe two things that will appear to be around for a very long time

The first is pain and suffering, often driven by pride, greed and fear of some form. Our society has evolved to place controls around our capacity to exploit and damage ourselves in our pursuit of same-store-sales, shareholder returns, increasing salaries, and purchasing capacity.

This leads me to my second observation of what can be considered forever, and that is our capacity for hope and love.  Humanity has the unique ability to rectify the damage we do to ourselves through application of justice and compassion.  If we are looking to make an investment in something that has a chance of lasting forever, we can apply ourselves towards something that will make the world a better place in some way after we are gone.

When the dust settles and someone is making a diamond out of your ashes, what is the “forever investment” you will leave behind? What did you or your organisation stand for and did it make a difference?

I do not believe that diamonds are forever. What is forever is suffering caused by our own human condition, offset by our capacity to rectify the situation with love and compassion. The only other consideration I would add would perhaps be Hollywood’s capacity for sequels, to which we may be watching Bond films as we make the world a better place for infinite generations to come.