Breast Cancer Industry Month Is Here!
Breast Cancer Industry Month Is Here!
Breast Cancer Awareness
Pink pink pink pink pink!! You must have noticed the vast influx of pink promotional products lining the aisles of supermarkets, adorning the logos of well-known brands, accessorizing the uniforms of football players and overtaking ad space. Breast Cancer Industry month is upon us!
You may know it more familiarly as Breast Cancer Awareness month—a time for businesses to make money and earn public goodwill under the guise of supporting a worthy cause. Rather than donate money to breast cancer research organizations directly, companies create and release pink-ribbon products, promising to donate a portion of the revenue from their sale. But in essence, these companies are using breast cancer to raise awareness of their brand. This commercialization of the disease distracts from actual work to help women living with and at risk of breast cancer. It’s called pinkwashing.
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Though this stunt certainly makes them frontrunners in shady charitable intentions this fall, Komen is far from the only organization with a controversial breast cancer awareness platform. Every year, the NFL launches its monthlong breast cancer awareness initiative, “A Crucial Catch,” in which players and officials don pink equipment and give fans the opportunity to purchase pink clothing and accessories to support the cause. However, Business Insider reports that only 8 percent of the money spent on pink NFL products actually goes to cancer research, making it clear that “A Crucial Catch” is more an attempt to pander to the public and improve the NFL’s image among women viewers than it is a focus on finding a cure. It’s also worth noting that “A Crucial Catch” actually spreads misinformation that harms women rather than helps them–the campaign’s mantra “early detection saves lives” is proven false). In addition to the NFL and Komen, BCA is campaigning this month against Oriental Trading, Kohl’s and Dansko, three other companies with deceptive charity initiatives. They also list many other businesses that mislead the public about what exactly is being done with funds generated in the name of finding a cure.
With all the false information, empty awareness campaigns and dishonesty that dominate the breast cancer awareness landscape every October, it’s more important than ever to recognize good work that is being done to combat the disease as well as improve the lives of women living with it. BCA, an organization that refuses funding from pharmaceutical companies or any organization that would attempt to influence the information it releases, challenges the notion that more funding is necessary to find a cure; instead, it focuses on properly allocating available funding. Its agenda includes working toward new FDA standards for breast cancer drug approval to find more effective, less toxic treatments; reducing environmental toxins and exposures that potentially cause cancer; reducing the role social inequities play in the availability of treatment; and changing the way breast cancer is discussed in public discourse. BCA also launched the Think Before You Pink campaign, calling out pinkwashers such as Yoplait, KFC and car manufacturers and rallying public support to push them to change their harmful practices.
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/10/13/breast-cancer-industry-month-is-here/
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