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Three years ago, I saw a story on the news while I was at the gym. An investigative feature on the breast cancer awareness contributions that various corporations pledged during Breast Cancer Awareness Month found that most of these promotions led to increased sales and windfall profits that dwarfed the piddling donations that the extra sales generated. Until that moment, I was gung-ho about buying products marked with pink ribbons. My mother was only 33 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1980, and I am forever grateful that a mastectomy preserved her life. Buying things that could help other women seemed like a no-brainer - the corporations had brainwashed me but good.
Once I saw the news story, I did some research. A few outlets were starting to discuss the gross exploitation of breast cancer and loose laws that allowed companies to say they were giving money to a cause to convince people to buy their products, and then give a teensy donation to a foundation. The resource for critical thinking about breast cancer awareness is a nonprofit agency called Breast Cancer Action. They launched "Think Before You Pink" in 2002 as Breast Cancer Awareness Month exploded from something to educate women about the risks of breast cancer to Corporate Profit-A-Thon. It was through BCA that I learned that many, many of the products sold to help "fight" breast cancer actually contain chemicals that are linked to the disease. I credit the evolution of my thinking on shopping/walking/whatevering for "the cure" to BCA.
Another important eye-opener for me was Samantha King's book Pink Ribbons, Inc.. King's research crystallized the link between exploiting fear of losing one's breasts or dying with the obscene amount of money corporations began raking in by affiliating themselves with "breast cancer awareness." The social cause marketers really believe that they are doing good things.
Otherwise, no one was saying much about the disgusting way Breast Cancer Awareness Month had been turned in Profit-Generating Month. I am happy to say that although the situation has only worsened, awareness of the exploitation - not only of the corporations and the marketers, but of some of the beneficiary agencies themselves - has grown exponentially. When I sat down to write this post, I found tons of bloggers and media outlets turning a skeptical (and righteously angry eye) on pink ribbon bullshit.
My friend Alex Elliot at Formula Fed & Flexible Parenting sent me a link to an article on Shine by Dory Devlin, Pink overload: Are companies taking advantage of Breast Cancer Awareness Month?. Devlin, in turn, cites articles about corporate abuse of breast cancer awareness in The Boston Globe and Daily Finance. Devlin's warning: "Buying pink does not always mean your green will go to cancer research." At the end of the article, she offers a list of places interested parties can donate to directly.
Siel at Green LA Girl has a few other suggestions for people who want to do their part in the battle against breast cancer:
So if you’d like to donate $10 to fight breast cancer, don’t buy 500 Swiffers. Instead, consider donating that money directly to groups like Breast Cancer Action, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and Environmental Working Group — all of which work to limit environmental exposures that put people at risk for breast cancer. That way, more money will go towards reducing the number of people who get cancer in the first place, less to companies cashing in on a do-gooder campaign.
Reminder: not only do you know exactly where your donation is going when you give directly to a charity, but you get a tax write-off. This is truly double bottom line investing!
Note that the big charities like Susan Komen, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation that benefit from most of the big campaigns are not on Siel's list. Not a mere oversight. In fact, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation was started by Evelyn Lauder. You may know her from her family's business, Estee Lauder cosmetics. What you may not know is that many Estee Lauder products contain parabens, which are estrogenic. According to BCA, "Estrogenic chemicals mimic the function of the naturally occurring hormone estrogen, and exposure to external estrogens has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer." While it
