A pictorial guide to why I’m over “Breast Cancer Awareness” marketing

 

A pink oil delivery truck? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? I was driving around Boston the other day and I saw one. Then I Googled it to get a picture and found out it was one of TWO local oil companies doing this. Then my friend Karen sent me a link to the pink recycling can. So I thought I’d put together a pictorial guide to some of the odder pink breast cancer items I could find. VOILA!

Ask yourself a question: Do you know anyone who isn’t aware of breast cancer?

From my original post on the topic:

Back in the day – in this case the early ‘90s – I had many friends with HIV and/or AIDS. One of whom, a true gentleman named John Kelley, wore on his jacket a Star Trek badge (right) and a red ribbon which many people were wearing then to show they knew AIDS existed. When asked about this heraldry he would respond, “Because Star Fleet cares about AIDS.” (RIP, dear John.) Which is pretty much where I’m at with all the pink that washes over marketing each October.

Let me make one thing very clear: Like everyone else, I know many people who have had breast (and other types of) cancer. One of those is Mother CollateralDamage. So it will not surprise you to learn that I, like everyone else, don’t like cancer. Now plenty of companies have done a lot to help fund research into preventing breast cancer and to them I say, “You may stop reading now.” The other day the family was driving by the HQ of New Balance sneakers and we noticed a large pink ribbon affixed to the building. Mrs. CollateralDamage: “They’ve earned it.”

But the problem is that many companies are now just slapping pink on the product or advertising and claiming they support “Breast Cancer Awareness.” As a commenter on a wonderful NYT column about Pink Ribbon Fatigue put it, “Buying stuff with pink ribbons will send some money to research and/or outreach, but it hard to tell how much that Yoplait helps. Posting ‘awareness’ status updates on facebook does absolutely nothing – I have yet to meet a person that wasn’t aware of breast cancer’s existence."

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Why I’m over “Breast Cancer Awareness” marketing

Back in the day – in this case the early ‘90s – I had many friends with HIV and/or AIDS. One of whom, a true gentleman named John Kelley, wore on his jacket a Star Trek badge (right) and a red ribbon which many people were wearing then to show they knew AIDS existed. When asked about this heraldry he would respond, “Because Star Fleet cares about AIDS.” (RIP, dear John.) Which is pretty much where I’m at with all the pink that washes over marketing each October.

Let me make one thing very clear: Like everyone else, I know many people who have had breast (and other types of) cancer. One of those is Mother CollateralDamage. So it will not surprise you to learn that I, like everyone else, don’t like cancer. Now plenty of companies have done a lot to help fund research into preventing breast cancer and to them I say, “You may stop reading now.” The other day the family was driving by the HQ of New Balance sneakers and we noticed a large pink ribbon affixed to the building. Mrs. CollateralDamage: “They’ve earned it.”

But the problem is that many companies are now just slapping pink on the product or advertising and claiming they support “Breast Cancer Awareness.” As a commenter on a wonderful NYT column about Pink Ribbon Fatigue put it, “Buying stuff with pink ribbons will send some money to research and/or outreach, but it hard to tell how much that yoplait helps. Posting ‘awareness’ status updates on facebook does absolutely nothing – I have yet to meet a person that wasn’t aware of breast cancer’s existence."

My current favorite bizarro pink item is the Chambord special breast cancer edition liquor bottles. They were brought to my attention via this wonderful blog post at Change.Org by Brie Cadman entitled “Pink Ribbon Hypocrisy: Boozing It Up For Breast Cancer.” Ms. Cadman is understandably irate over companies that contribute to the causes of breast cancer then trying to earn good will via the Big Pink:

The biggest offenders are fast food and alcohol companies. According to the National Cancer Institute, both obesity and alcohol are associated with an increased breast cancer risk. Yet that hasn’t stopped these companies from claiming their goods help support or even prevent the disease. First off is KFC, the company that seems to know no bounds when it comes to using women to sell their products. The last time we checked in with the fried-chicken-slinging folks, they were using college women’s bums to promote their own buns. But they’re also capitalizing on breast cancer by selling pink buckets and donating $0.50 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

While I don’t agree with all Ms. Cadman’s arguments, I think they are part of a much needed dash of reality. Consumers need to be a lot more diligent about what a company means when it says it is “supporting” a charity.

Some parts of this all this pinkosity I enjoy: Like the sight of professional baseball players having to make the Freudian subtext obvious by playing with pink bats. I just wonder how much good this actually does. I would be more impressed if more emphasis was put on helping an actual person cope with cancer treatment. Bring them a meal, if they want one. Hang out after the chemo when they have no energy and feel like crap and don’t want to be alone and are afraid they’re of being a burden to family and friends. Take them to a movie. Be available for middle of the night phone calls. Run errands, etc., etc., etc. Let’s move “cancer awareness” from the generic, wholesale level to a more personal, retail experience. It’s easy to support “people” with cancer, it is much harder to support an actual person.

And remember, Star Fleet cares about people with breast cancer.

Or, to quote DeathStarPR: “Earth, we can help you #beatcancer. Side effects may include loss of: sunsets, life on Earth, Earth itself. Because we care.#deathstarcares”

Facebook causes crimes, cops & cancer

It’s Facebook’s world — we only live in it.

• Police officers in Bradenton, FL, said a 19-year-old man snatched a Starbucks customers laptop after being told he could not use it to check his Facebook account.
  
• Scottish police departments are now vetting recruits via Facebook, et al., instead of the traditional F2F interviews. Previously recruits had to go through a two-hour interview in their home by a senior officer, who turns up unannounced. “But only two of Scotland’s forces still carry out home visits because of pressure to meet the government target of 1100 new officers.“
• A new study has found spending so much time on Facebook, et al., may kill you. An article in Biologist, the journal of Britain’s Institute of Biology, says that these social networks are responsible for a huge drop in F2F interactions: down from 6 hrs/day in 1987 to 2 hrs/day in 2007. “The huge reduction in direct interaction results in physiological changes with unhealthy consequences, the study claims, citing data gathered in Western industrialised societies. These include changed hormone levels, immune responses, blood pressure, arterial functioning, mental functioning – even genetic changes.”

I am guilty as charged, see here for proof.

Pledge to support Mrs. CollateralDamage in race to raise funds against cancer

The incredible & indomintable Mrs. CD is running Sunday in the Susan G. Komen 5K Race for the Cure. Please go here to support it and her if you would. I know ours is not the only family that cancer has taken a huge toll on.

Kennedy cancer making Right Wing crazy

The strangest places are saying nice things about Teddy K.

From Fox News:

Boston Herald: Kennedy becomes profile in courage
New York Post: BRAVE TED IN FIGHT OF HIS LIFE
NY Daily News: How Ted earned our respect

The Washington Times simply reports the news and so far has avoided it entirely on the op/ed pages. (BTW, in my experience the Times news coverage is just that, so I am only surprised by the silence on the pundit pages.)

Sweetness & Light runs the Washington Post story and then grits their teeth to add, “We are as sorry to hear this news as we would be about any fellow human being.”

Michelle Malkin: Put aside your political differences and join me in keeping Sen. Ted Kennedy and his family in your prayers as they grapple with the news of his malignant brain tumor diagnosis

CNSNews (“The Right News. Right Now.”) hasn’t even run a story on it. Nor have Rush Limbaugh, Mad Annie Coulter — whom I’ve frequently suspect of having Creautzfeld-Jacob Disease — or The Weekly Standard.

My own reaction was one of total surprise. It’s not that I thought of him as immortal, but I did think of him as permanent. Some are positing that Ted will survive longer than most with this illness because of the amount of preservative he has consumed over the years. I would not stoop to such a low type of humor myself.

I must admit to being a bit put off with some of the hyperbole about the illness that has been heard on the airwaves. Our own Senator Kerry called it a tragedy and this has been picked up by much of the media. No it’s not a tragedy. The murders of his two brothers was a tragedy — young men killed during public service. The senator is 76 and has cancer. That is sad and worthy of concern and sympathy. However one would be hard pressed to describe the death of an older human of cancer as tragedy.