Once again, October (or “Pinktober”) has rolled around. This month, the color pink floods American supermarkets, pharmacies and shopping malls— all in the name of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Companies can pink-out just about anything: a can of Pringles, sneakers, coffee, KFC chicken buckets and so on.
But have we payed enough attention to where the money made from selling pink ribbon products is actually going?
The harsh reality is that companies are legally allowed to slap a pink ribbon on any product, as long as some money is donated to a breast cancer charity; for many large corporations, most of the money is kept to themselves. For example, Dansko shoe company marketed clogs with pink ribbons on them during October 2010 and consumers assumed the purchase of clogs correlated to how much money would be donated to breast cancer research. But that was not the case. In fact, Dansko had a set donation of $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure no matter how many clogs they sold—whether it be zero or a million.
That's why this October: think before you pink.
What does the pink ribbon even mean today? It's ultimately a marketing tool that's claiming to "spread awareness" as if most Americans are unaware of breast cancer. Using profits from the pink ribbon products to “spread awareness” is different than actually giving the money to researchers in order to find a cure to this deadly disease. The corporations that sell pink ribbon products to the public are exploiting societal concerns about breast cancer, while using Breast Cancer Awareness Month to boost sales and improve their image.
The NFL for example has an interesting history with women. To try and show their support during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, they began a large pink ribbon campaign. However, in 2013 only 8.01 percent of the money made by selling pink NFL products went to breast cancer research. Can we guess what happened to the rest of it?
Forget what this says about how gluttonous corporations can be, we all know that already. But what does this say about the way corporate America views women? How can they claim to support women by slapping a pink ribbon on a product, while they keep most of the profits? Breast cancer kills thousands of women every year, and companies rake in profits during October by commercializing this disease.
What’s even worse is that some companies who sell products with chemicals linked to breast cancer are joining in on the pink ribbon fad. Yoplait yogurt, which contains rBGH, and Alhambra water, which contains BPA, are just two examples of this. Both of these companies are involved in Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and both of these companies sell products that increase the risk of getting the disease they supposedly want to eradicate.
So, if you really want to get involved this month, I’d suggest checking out thinkbeforeyoupink.org, a project launched by Breast Cancer Action which calls into question all of the “pinkwashing" that goes on in America during October.
