I Will Not Be Pinkwashed: Komen’s Race is for Money, Not the Cure

Title: I Will Not Be Pinkwashed: Komen’s Race is for Money, Not the Cure

Author: Dr. Mercola

Publication: Food Consumer

Publication Date:  February 22, 2012

“The multimillion-dollar company behind all those pink “breast cancer awareness” ribbons — the Susan G. Komen Foundation – uses less than a dime of each dollar to actually look for a breast cancer cure, as promised.

Plastering pink ribbons on every conceivable product has much more to do with raising awareness of, and money for, the Komen Foundation than it does curing breast cancer; pink ribbon campaigns are commonly used on products that may contribute to cancer, such as fried chicken and cosmetics that contain cancer-causing ingredients

It’s reported that the Komen Foundation owns stock in several pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, the maker of tamoxifen, a cancer drug that is actually classified as a human carcinogen by both the World Health Organization and the American Cancer Society.

In the case of many large cancer charities, your money will go toward research to create often-toxic and sometimes deadly cancer drugs, questionable screening programs like mammography, and into the bank accounts of its numerous well-paid executives — all while the real underlying causes continue to be ignored or actively concealed.”

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Detailing the problems of ‘breast cancer culture’

Title: Detailing the problems of ‘breast cancer culture’

Author: Anna Holmes

Publication: The Washington Post

Publication Date: February 09, 2012

…Although the mainstreaming of breast cancer activism and awareness is a triumph of marketing and outreach, its ubiquity has come at a cost – or depending on your point of a view, a profit – in the form of hundreds if not thousands of new or retooled consumer products. Cars, makeup, vacuum cleaners, stuffed animals, NFL and MLB apparel . . . all these and more have, at one point or another over the past few decades, been slapped with a fresh coat of (pink) paint and the imprimatur of any number of breast cancer charities, including Komen and the other behemoth in the breast cancer space, the Avon Foundation…

pink ribbons, pink ribboned-consumer goods and associated runs, walks and jumps “for the cure” have become so commonplace and therefore benign that we hardly notice them; we’re anesthetized to this major killer of women to the point that it’s almost accepted as a rite of passage, not a profoundly painful experience. The color has been promoted as fashionable, a shorthand for a sort of optimism and positivity – what [Samantha] King calls the “tyranny of cheerfulness” – that threatens to obscure much of the justifiable grief, frustration and fear that accompany the epidemic, not to mention the hypocrisies of the companies who benefit from it…

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Support for charity tainted by partisan politics

Title: Support for charity tainted by partisan politics

Author: Letters to the Editor

Publication:  USA Today

Date: February 08, 2012

It is sad that Susan G. Komen for the Cure got itself involved in abortion politics. Abortion divides us pretty much right down the middle. Did the organization really not see this trouble coming “Komen reversal on Planned Parenthood doesn’t end controversy“?

In addition, the group’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood— reversed under pressure — seemed dishonest. If the group wanted to say, “We no longer support Planned Parenthood because it provides abortions,” then it should have come right out and said so. Instead, its leaders cited a new policy barring funding of groups “under investigation.” Planned Parenthood is under investigation because of pressure from abortion opponents, not because of suspicions of wrongdoing…

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Komen’s pink ribbons raise green, and questions

Title: Komen’s pink ribbons raise green, and questions

Author: Liz Szabo

Publication: USA Today

Publication Date: July 18, 2011

Supporters of Susan G. Komen for the Cure are used to seeing the group’s founder, Nancy Brinker, at fundraisers such as Race for the Cure.

But some breast cancer survivors said they were surprised to see Brinker recently on the Home Shopping Network selling perfume. The new fragrance, called Promise Me, comes in a rose-colored bottle with Komen’s trademarked pink ribbon, and its manufacturer has pledged to donate at least $1 million to the charity. The perfume is the latest in a long line of products bearing Komen’s pink ribbon, from kitchen mixers to gardening gloves, that have helped the group raise $1.9 billion for breast cancer causes.

And though some of Komen’s marketing partners have become the butt of jokes (KFC’s pink “Buckets for the Cure” was even satirized on The Colbert Report last year), none of these pink-ribboned products has angered as many breast cancer survivors as the new fragrance.

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Hold Your Noses: Pink Has A Smell

Title: Hold Your Noses: Pink Has A Smell

Author: Gayle Sulik

Publication: Pink Ribbon Blues blog

Publication Date: June 17, 2011

Susan G. Komen for the Cure®’s new fragrance Promise Me has more than a few people up in arms about the lengths this nonprofit organization (or perhaps more appropriately termed, nonprofit corporation), will go to guarantee its position in the breast cancer marketplace. The organization technically is in the business of ending breast cancer not hawking pink ribbon product lines. If it worked as it should, achieving its mission would render the organization and its increasing number of branded products obsolete.

This irony is not lost on a growing number of individuals and organizations taking aim at what they believe to be seriously misdirected activities. Komen’s corporate partnership last October with consumer products investor and operator, TPR Holdings, only invigorated discontent. TPR’s targeted investments include “scalable mass and prestige opportunities in health, beauty and  wellness categories.” Together, Komen and TPR envisioned “a union of beauty and charity” that took the form of a scalable, mass-produced, prestige item specifically designed for Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, a fragrance called Promise Me. The perfume was released in April, given as a complimentary sample to prospective beauty bloggers and reviewers, and is slated to remain on the market for six months “with new editions launching each year.”

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Buying Products Tied to Charities Depresses Giving, New Study Finds

Title: Buying Products Tied to Charities Depresses Giving, New Study Finds

Author: Raymund Flandez

Publication: Chronicle of Philanthropy blog

Publication Date: March 31, 2011

Fund raisers have long worried about a possible downside to corporate-charity marketing deals—that people who buy a special brand of yogurt or computer or stuffed animal because a retailer promises to give a small percentage of the purchase price to a good cause will figure they have met their charitable obligation and not give as much in direct donations.

It turns out the worries are warranted, according to new research from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

People who buy so called cause-related products give a lot less in direct contributions, according to Aradhna Krishna, a professor of marketing at the school.

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Charity Risks Good Will With Legal Action

Title: Charity Risks Good Will With Legal Action

Author: P.S. Jones

Publication:  Moxy Magazine

Publication Date: February 14, 2011

When it comes to breast cancer charities, the biggest name in the world is Susan G. Komen For The Cure, a charity started by Nancy Goodman Brinker when her older sister died of the disease in 1980. In the over 25 years the charity has existed, it has reportedly donated over $1.5 billion dollars to breast cancer awareness, research and patient services. Although it is the biggest breast cancer charity in the world, Komen has seen plenty of criticism about its practices over the years, including its association with Planned Parenthood and “pinkwashing” products that aren’t necessarily promoting healthy lifestyles with its logo. Recently the charity has been under fire for using funds to conduct legal wars against other charities.

Since their rebranding initiatives in 2007, Komen has spent nearly a million dollars a year in an effort to keep other charities and organizations from using “for the cure” in their names. From “Kites For The Cure” to “Cupcakes For The Cure,” any organization that seems similar to Komen’s name or logo has faced legal opposition. In late 2010, several news sources, including the Wall Street Journal, ran polarizing stories about the legitimacy of Komen’s actions. Many supporters are upset that the money they entrusted to the organization has been funding petty legal actions against other charitable organizations.

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Your opinion: A (Pink) Bone to Pick with the Susan G. Komen Foundation

Title: Your opinion: A (Pink) Bone to Pick with the Susan G. Komen Foundation

Author: Amber Johnson

Publication: Mile High Mama’s blog

Publication Date: January 31, 2011

I was taken aback when I read that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure was canceling their three-day walk for breast cancer in Colorado because, according to their PR agency, “it just didn’t meet financial goals.”

Nevermind the thousands of dollars Denverites have raised in what has became one of our city’s most highly-attended and beloved charity events.

Well, the fundraising giant’s public relations staff will be working overtime over their latest controversy: They are threatening legal actions around any other event and charities that use any variation of “for the cure” in their name.

Isn’t it just swell to think of donor’s funds going to such a “worthwhile” cause?

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Komen cancels Denver’s 3-Day for the Cure

Title: Komen cancels Denver’s 3-Day for the Cure

Author: Amber Johnson

Publication: Mile High Mama’s blog

Publication Date:  January 19, 2011

The Komen three-day walk for breast cancer is walking away from Colorado.

The cancellation of the Denver 3-Day for the Cure event for 2011 was announced on the event website, citing tough economic times.

“We launched the Denver event in 2008, and it just didn’t meet financial goals,” said Wendy Fitch of the Chicago-based public relations firm that handles calls for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “It didn’t grow as we expected.”

Fitch said she did not know what those specific financial goals were, but she did say participation in Denver was “not on par with other markets.”

Overall, the three-day walks have raised more than $500 million since 2003, she said. Seventy-five percent of money raised goes to breast cancer research, according to the Komen website.

Michele Ostrander, executive director of Komen’s Denver affiliate, said last year about 800 participants walked 60 miles from Colorado Mills Mall through Littleton, Cherry Hills Village and Washington Park to City Park.

In comparison, about 4,000 people participated in the San Diego three-day walk last year, according to media accounts.

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Merchandise tie-ins to breast cancer awareness have some seeing red over all that pink

Title: Merchandise tie-ins to breast cancer awareness have some seeing red over all that pink

Author: Kim Horner

Publication: dallasnews.com

Publication Date: October 28, 2010

The pink rubber duckies may be cute. But can they really help cure breast cancer?

What about the pink buckets of fried chicken?

Or one of the most controversial breast cancer awareness products, a Smith & Wesson handgun with pink grips and an engraved pink ribbon?

“Where does it end?” said Gayle Sulik of Denton, author of Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health .

During “Pinktober,” as some call October’s breast cancer awareness month, everything from dental picks to NFL players’ cleats turns pink.

Sulik’s new book is part of a growing backlash against a movement that critics say has become more focused on making money than finding a cure.

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