Susan G. Komen for the Cure® – No More Apologies!

Title:  Susan G. Komen for the Cure® – No More Apologies!

Author: Nancy Stordahl

Publication:  Nancy’s Point blog

Publication Date: August 12, 2011

There has been a lot of discussion recently in the blogosphere about Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. I believe the rumblings are starting to be heard. Now the question is will Komen begin to listen? Like I’ve always told my students, there is a huge difference between hearing and listening.

For the record, Komen describes itself as,

—the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists – the only grassroots organization fighting to cure breast cancer at every stage, from the causes to the cures and the pain and anxiety of every moment in between.

Komen’s stated mission is:

to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to find the cures.

Like many bloggers, I’ve been thinking about this organization of late and how it seems to have failed in the above stated mission.

But this particular post isn’t really about that success or failure.

Mostly, what I want to address today is why I have felt so uncomfortable criticizing Komen in the past.

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Should Breast Cancer Ads Play Up the Pink?

Title: Should Breast Cancer Ads Play Up the Pink?

Author: Katherine Hobson

Publication: Wall Street Journal blog

Publication Date: July 7, 2011

The vast majority of breast cancer cases occur in women, so it’s only natural that the components of and context for public-health ads about the disease have a connection to that gender.

A study recently published by the Journal of Marketing Research, however, questions whether that’s always the best way to go. A series of six experiments demonstrates, the authors say, that emphasizing gender in those ads might actually lower a woman’s perceived risk for breast cancer, make her give less to gender-specific cancer charities and even make her less likely to remember the ads. (Here’s the executive summary and here’s the abstract.)

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Komen’s Wild Ride

Title: Komen’s Wild Ride

Author: Alicia C. Staley

Publication: wegoHealth blog

Publication Date: June 10, 2011

Dear Susan G. Komen for the Cure:

Stop. Just stop. I’ve reached the point where I’m embarrassed by you and all your branding efforts for the cure. I see tons of pink ribbons, plastered on everything from shampoo to lawn mowers and cat litter.  I’m beyond aware.  I’m frustrated.  I can no longer justify your breast cancer awareness campaigns to my friends that want to know why there’s no cure.  I’ve received more emails in the past week over at Awesome Cancer Survivor expressing exasperation at the breast cancer community than I care to count.  As a breast cancer survivor, I shouldn’t have to justify your behaviors.

When you launched your partnership with Kentucky Fried Chicken  (aka “Buckets for the Cure”), I excused your lapse of judgment.  I assumed it was a temporary slip, and you’d eventually focus your energies back on partnerships and alliances that aligned more closely with your stated goal of “For the Cure.”  You trumpeted the partnership, declaring KFC would make the largest one time donation of an estimated $8 million to Komen. The ultimate goal of the $8 million donation never materialized.  According to your own reports, you only took in $4.2 million.  Not pocket change by any stretch of the imagination, but only about half of what you were looking to grab. You are the self-proclaimed leader of the breast cancer community.  Where is your leadership?

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Are We Really Racing for the Cure?

Title:  Are We Really Racing for the Cure?

Author:  Nancy Stordahl

Publication:  Nancy’s Point blog

Publication Date: May 12, 2011

This past Sunday was of course Mother’s Day. It was also the day earmarked for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. (I live close to the Twin Cities and lived there for many years, hence my interest). While watching the news Sunday night and observing the anchors beaming and smiling, I found myself feeling fidgety, uncomfortable and yes, even guilty because I was not feeling what I was supposed to be feeling. I was not feeling all warm, fuzzy and grateful. In fact, I was feeling the opposite. I was feeling a bit ungrateful. Why?

The story was meant to be of the warm and fuzzy type, the kind of story that makes everyone watching feel good, it was Sunday evening after all. And not just any Sunday evening, Mother’s Day Sunday evening.

The news clips captured yet another sea of pink, another shining example of the success of the pink ribbon campaigns.

The event drew in 55,000 walkers, a new record, and 2.5 million dollars were raised. The anchors proudly stated this particular race has grown to be the second largest in the world, probably due to the Mother’s Day date as well as the location; again, it takes place at the Mall of America.

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Tie a pink ribbon ’round that old deadly tumor.

Title: Tie a pink ribbon ’round that old deadly tumor.

Author: rjheart

Publication: Open Salon blog: Welcome to My World

Publication Date: April 10, 2011

The Susan G. Komen foundation was founded in 1982 following the death of Susan Komen, sister of Nancy Brinker. Nancy Brinker is the founder and CEO of one of the most powerful and profitable “non-profits” in the world. Susan Komen died after three years of fighting breast cancer. She was diagnosed at a time when little was known about this deadly disease. People would cross the street to avoid going near the 36 year old woman because of their fear that she was contagious.

Susan’s last years were spent in pain and fear. Radiation treatments and breast removal were her only paths of hope. She reached out to her fellow sufferers and died with the dream that no one would ever again suffer the way that she had. Her sister vowed to bring her dream to reality. Using her experience in marketing and the influence of her family’s wealth, she began to raise money for awareness and treatment of the disease that killed her sister and nearly took her own life.

In 1984, Nancy Brinker also detected a lump in her breast and demanded immediately that the doctors remove both her breasts. Following their removal, she was given chemotherapy and survived. The experience of watching her sister wither away and die had made her choice of aggressive treatment obvious. She then wrote a book detailing her experience and guiding other women to fight and to speak out.

1982 saw the death of Susan Komen and the birth of breast cancer awareness.

Here we are. It is 2011.

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Does “support” include treatment?

Title: Does “support” include treatment?

Author: Cancer Bitch

Publication: Cancer Bitch blog

Publication Date: April 1, 2011

Komen just received a $1 million grant to tell poor ladies in the Rust Belt about breast cancer. Over the next four years, the program will train nearly 500 lay health advisors [first in Ohio, then east and west] to provide education and outreach on breast cancer in 17 communities served by Key Bank and Komen Affiliates nationwide. Lay health advisors will provide information, referrals to health care resources, one-on-one consultations, assistance with scheduling, support during health care visits and more.

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Are we too conscious of breast cancer?

Title: Are we too conscious of breast cancer?

Author: H. Gilbert Welch

Publication: Charlotte Observer

Publication Date: October 25, 2010

I’m a physician who has had concerns about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month for years. They persist despite my wife’s breast cancer diagnosis a decade ago (she’s fine and shares my concerns).

I worry that the campaign has led women to be more fearful of breast cancer than they need be. The “1 in 8” or “1 in 9” statistic, in particular, serves as a poster child for how to exaggerate risk (both because it encompasses an entire lifetime and because it’s not the chance of dying, but of being diagnosed).

Equally troubling is the relentless promotion of screening mammography as the solution.

That the campaign’s principal founder is a manufacturer of breast cancer drugs doesn’t make me feel any better. Nor does the appearance of pink as a fall color in the National Football League.

Knowing my concerns, a reporter recently asked me, “What do you think women should be aware of?” Here’s my list:

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Thinking Pink Hasn’t Helped Find Causes of Breast Cancer

Title: Thinking Pink Hasn’t Helped Find Causes of Breast Cancer

Author: Deborah Kotz

Publication: US News and World Report

Publication Date: October 6, 2010

It’s that time of the year again, when women are told to don pink and think about breast cancer. And, yes, we’re thinking about it: An illogical but attention-grabbing Facebook breast cancer awareness campaign to get women to post “I like it on the floor/I like it on the couch” status updates—where they like to put their purse, not have sex—went viral this week. And thanks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation pink ribbon campaign, which first launched 25 years ago, we are much more aware now about the importance of early detection via mammograms and regular breast exams. (U.S. News is participating in a fundraising campaign for the foundation.) Yet many of those who are deeply engaged in research to find a breast cancer cure aren’t happy with the way things are going. “I really don’t feel like celebrating,” wrote Fran Visco on Monday in this Huffington Post blog; she’s president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more research. “Twenty-five years ago, in the United States, 110 women died of breast cancer every day,” she continued in her blog. “Twenty-five years and billions of private and public research dollars later, that number is 110. Every day. Not much progress, is it?” (She’s right, but that doesn’t take population growth into account. The death rate from breast cancer is about 15 percent below what it was in 1985.)

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Breast Cancer Sells

Title: Breast Cancer Sells

Author: Lucinda Marshall

Publication: AlterNet

Publication Date: October 24, 2007

October means falling leaves, ghosts and goblins, and pink, lots of Pepto-Pink as we observe National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). From Campbell’s Soup to Breast Cancer Barbie, it seems as if just about everyone has jumped on the pinkified bandwagon. And although October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), we’d much rather be aware of breasts, even sick ones, than talk about black eyes and things that aren’t supposed to go on behind closed doors. That point is reflected in women’s magazines, which devote much more space in their October issues to breast cancer than they do to domestic violence.

Of nine publications that I recently found on a grocery store magazine rack, all of which advertised breast cancer articles on the covers of their October issues, only two also contained coverage of Domestic Violence Awareness Month (and mentioned that on their covers).* And, what’s worse, of the coverage dedicated to breast cancer, much of it was offensive, superficial, misleading, or flat-out wrong.

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Despite Awareness Campaigns, Breast Cancer Myths Linger

Title: Despite Awareness Campaigns, Breast Cancer Myths Linger

Author: Tara Parker-Pope

Publication: New York Times Well blog

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

For the next four weeks we will be awash in a sea of pink as women’s groups promote October as breast cancer awareness month. But while awareness is high, many women still have some key facts about breast cancer all wrong.

Today the National Breast Cancer Coalition released a survey of 1,000 women that finds several areas in which misinformation abounds. Over half of women, for instance, said family history is the most common risk factor for breast cancer. But the truth is that genes known to increase the risk are rare and are estimated to account for only 5 percent to 10 percent of breast cancer cases.

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