Breast Cancer Action: Stop the Distraction of Pink Products During Awareness Month
The Breast Cancer Action watchdog nonprofit that is anti-pink product promotions during the awareness month of October is sending out their message again this year to stop selling pink products.
Each year the organization sniffs out retailers and product-makers who profit significantly off of the hype of what is deemed the most marketable cancer, as well as offer products that have known carcinogens.
This year the six corporations identified include the NFL, a repeat offender on their list, along with Kohls, Alhambra Water, NASCAR, Hooter's and Oriental Trading.
Executive director Karuna Jaggar said in a statement, "The annual flood of products and the widespread culture of 'pink' have hijacked the breast cancer movement. Pink ribbon culture serves to sanitize this devastating disease -- in order for pink ribbon products to be profitable, marketers must make breast cancer palatable."
NFL and NASCAR promote awareness of the month but have done so with misinformation and degradation.
The main concern of anti-pink campaigns is the obsession of American culture with the "ta-tas," which is why the awareness campaign has become so popular. There are easy ways to push for donations and use quirky humor, but the result is sometimes offensive and degrading to women.
For example, NASCAR is selling shirts to raise awareness that read, "Check Your Headlights."
The NFL, along with some other major organizations and corporations, oversell the significance of a mammogram -- a tool used in detecting breast cancer that some experts say is not the key to saving a life.
The overly-feminine campaign for the awareness month often includes beauty tips, and sanitized, carefully chosen images of women, such as in the Hooter's campaign, the BC Action said.
The organization also highlights what they consider "empty" awareness -- which is the selling of retail products that simply stamp a pink ribbon on the package, but can sometimes be a health hazard.
Alhambra Water, for example, is selling plastic polycarbonate water bottles which contain BPA, a hormone-disrupting chemical linked to breast cancer, BC Action said.
This type of donating, or just plain trend donating like in the instance of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge this past summer, are evidence of a lack of charity in the country, USA Today reported.
In a 2010 survey of affluent donors, just 35 percent said they did any research before giving, Hope Consulting reported, according to USA Today.
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