Why I boycott Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Posted on Oct 01, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Social Justice, Susie Collins

Beware: Breast Cancer Awareness Month turns breast cancer into just another marketing campaign.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I’d like to add my two cents to the discussion: I am a breast cancer survivor and I boycott Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Rather than jumping on the very popular pink bandwagon, I boycott all breast cancer “awareness” and pink ribbon campaigns, subscribing to a CAUSE not CURE approach to the epidemic of breast cancer.

My highly critical view of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is along the lines of Samantha King’s, who, in her book Pink Ribbons, Inc., “traces how breast cancer has been transformed from a stigmatized disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship.” King maintains that corporations, under the guise of philanthropy, “turn their formidable promotion machines on the curing of the disease while dwarfing public health prevention efforts and stifling the calls for investigation into why and how breast cancer affects such a vast number of people.” I couldn’t agree more.

I fully support Breast Cancer Action, an organization based in San Francisco helping to transform breast cancer from a private medical crisis to a public health emergency. And I love their Think Before You Pink campaign that “calls for more transparency and accountability by companies that take part in breast cancer fundraising, and encourages consumers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions.” Think Before You Pink also highlights “pinkwashers”—companies that “purport to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon campaign, but manufacture products that are linked to the disease.”

In the spirit of focusing on CAUSE not CURE, Rita Arditti at CommonDreams.org writes about “Why Cancer’s Gaining on Us,” making the case about the rise in breast cancer coinciding with the flood of synthetic chemicals in our environment since the 1950s, calling for research into any possible links.

“Is there definitive evidence that these substances cause breast cancer?” she asks. “Have they been sufficiently studied? Well, no. We need to know more about the timing, duration, and patterns of exposure, which may be as important as dosage.”

Don’t miss that the chemicals she lists as examples are some of the very same chemicals to which those of us with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity react negatively.

Since World War II, the proliferation of synthetic chemicals has gone hand-in-hand with the increased incidence of breast cancer. About 80,000 synthetic chemicals are used today in the United States, and their number increases by about 1,000 each year. Only about 7 percent of them have been screened for their health effects. These chemicals can persist in the environment and accumulate in our bodies. According to a recent review by the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, 216 chemicals and radiation sources cause breast cancer in animals.

Nearly all of the chemicals cause mutations, and most cause tumors in multiple organs and animal species, findings that are generally believed to indicate they likely cause cancer in humans. Yet few have been closely studied by regulatory bodies. There is concern about benzene, which is in gasoline; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are in air pollution from vehicle exhaust, tobacco smoke, and charred foods; ethylene oxide, which is widely used in medical settings; and methylene chloride, a common solvent in paint strippers and glues.

That’s where we should be focusing, not on the pretty ribbon in a feel-good color that pops up on the calendar once a year and is sponsored by the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

Photo credit. Metastatic cancer cells.

This post was originally published in October 2008.

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Tags: Chemicals, Environment, Environmental Illness, Indoor Pollution, Research, Toxic

40 Responses to “Why I boycott Breast Cancer Awareness Month”

Sandy

01. Oct, 2009

I have always thought that there has been too much emphasis on the cure when what we should really be focusing on is the CAUSE. No one seems to stop and think about or ask the question “why is cancer on the rise?”. Of course there are many other ailments on the rise as well, such as autism, asthma, allergies, etc. WHY? WHY? WHY?

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Mokihana

01. Oct, 2009

Thanks for republishing this article. Smoke and mirrors are a two-part equivalent to the distracting strategy of promoting the collective minds/eyes on curing disease rather than stopping the causes. Illusion has captured the attention of a society fed on television and drama. Attending to the actions of our quick, quick, quick big, bigger, bigger mentality has created a cauldron of ills.

I’m all for boycotting another smoke and mirrors production that distracts from the reality of chemical causes that could be stopped. Focus, focus, focus. Rather than hocus, hocus …p…. Those who live with MCS are more than canaries, we are the bodies of the chemically altered and I for one don’t want no stinking ribbon.

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Julie

01. Oct, 2009

I agree with you 100% Susie. Thanks for articulating this view so well. I have always been against “Race for a Cure” campaigns that allow consumers to feel “off the hook” if they just wear a ribbon or collect money for a campaign – but do not make changes in their own life to reduce their risk of cancer and reduce the risk of cancer for our society as a whole. This IS a public health emergency and it’s great to know there are others who believe the same.

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Katrina

01. Oct, 2009

I have had these same views for several years also, and it’s great to hear I’m not the only one who feels this way–even though by the ad campaigns and the pink ribbons around me it often feels like it. Thank you for this wonderful article, Susie!

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Sylvia

01. Oct, 2009

Hi Susie! I admit I was surprised by your headline, so I jumped in here right away coz I knew you would have good reasons for your attitude. Thanks for giving me an eye-opener in this direction.
Of course I’ve always know about the overload of chemicals that are harming us more & more as time goes by, but I hadn’t thought about the pink ribbon awareness day as anything more than that.
This is very interesting and I’ll pick up courage to send it to a couple of friends who support the pink ribbon issue… they include the pink ribbon in their “signature” in various forums. See what they have to say!
Hugs to all, Sylvia***
Footnote: Way back when I was a child, my Dad was horrified when powerful pesticides were made obligatory to spray on apple-trees. We lived on an apple-farm. There was a schedule he had to follow, else inspectors would drop by and he’d be in trouble…My Dad worried because the farmers had to spray, for example, 2 weeks before harvest time, but that was a stupid rule, since any change in the weather or marketing policies could put harvesting forward, and anyway many farmers hadn’t a clue how to manage/dissolve pesticides (lots were illiterate Italian or Spanish immigrants, good, hardworking people, but uneducated).
My Mom & Dad liked to go around picking bugs off manually! Nowadays, in Buenos Aires where I live, the apples glow with artificial colors, one can’t eat the skins anymore…What a waste of nourishing vitamins! Thanks again, bye!

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heather

01. Oct, 2009

hi susie. thanks for writing this. while i don’t personally boycott breast cancer awareness month, i agree wholeheartedly with the gist of your article. an online friend of mine who died of metastatic breast cancer in 2006 often parsed out these same arguments in her journal (her journal remains untouched & public; you can read her thoughts at http://www.kamigirl25.livejournal.com); she was the first to make me question my blind allegiance to the pink ribbon, and the first to spark my awareness in the fact that much of ‘breast cancer awareness’ is a giant marketing campaign, with very little of the profits incurred being put toward actual prevention, patient care, OR true investigation into cure.

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heather

01. Oct, 2009

sorry, make that http://kamigirl25.livejournal.com .

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Connie Rae

01. Oct, 2009

Hooray! Thanks, Susie. My Mom, whose birthday is Oct. 12, died of breast cancer when she was 58. I have three sisters and we all handle it differently. One sister does a walk for cancer. I always try to encourage her, but don’t give a dime! I agree with you. I don’t support the marketing when they are looking for a cure instead of stopping the carcinogens from making us sick in the first place. Detoxing from the chemical injury has helped me live a healthier lifestyle. I know the organophosphates that got me can also grow the cancer, but I am preventing like crazy. It is empowering not fearful.
I will be 60 soon…and I expect the years will get better now that I have some tools to live healthy.
No pink ribbons for me. Mine are green and yellow and purple…I can’t remember why right now…

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Linda Delp

02. Oct, 2009

Hi Susie, my sister has breast cancer. I had a difficult time when I was at her house. I don’t know why, but I got a migraine and was vomiting. Something was in the air. My family is bugging me to get a mammogram but I told them I didn’t want to be thrown into something else when I didn’t get help with my illness from indoor mold/the chemical problem, and chronic yeast. I am scared enough– but to be thrown into something else– and I am not sure that I would get chemo even if I had it. I don’t think I do, but I guess we never know. My other sister wanted me to do this thing where they test average people for many years and sometimes you would be called in to give breast fluid or they take tissue. With the problems I already have, it is difficult to even consider these other issues. I have often thought how there is so much money thrown into cancer, and many of the companies involved have products that do harm. My sister has one more chemo treatment, and I pray she will be okay. I am sad that I can’t visit her because I got so ill when I visited her before, and she lives 5 hours away so I couldn’t just get up and leave if I were ill. I felt so bad when I got sick at her house. She worked hard to for my visit, and she has such a beautiful home. Now her husband has prostate cancer, but she hasn’t told me yet. My other sister told me. So sad. Linda

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Jasmine

02. Oct, 2009

Right on!

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Susie Collins

02. Oct, 2009

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate your different perspectives on this. I’m touched deeply by your stories of family and friends lost to breast cancer. Heather’s friend’s journal will sober you up like nothing else (see link above)– I’ve read through quite a bit of it and it’s haunted me all day– thank you for sharing that, Heather.

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J.B.

06. Oct, 2009

Thank you so much for writing this. The pink ribbon marketing campaign has always smelled just off to me.

Do you also notice how sooo many very bad for you products are sold with pink packaging and say 5 cents per package goes to BC awareness month etc.? How hypocritical is that when things like junks food (biscuits/cookies etc.) are known to be a factor in causing some cancers, and the chemicals in these very processed foods may also be carcinorgenic or at the very least not conducive to good health.

It seems a lot of it is about just selling more of products and making for money for the company under the guise of charity.

Also, the book ‘Good Health in the 21st Century’ talked about how those creating soem of teh most carcinogenic drugs also make mammogram machines, and sponsor BC awareness projects, making sure the chemcial causes of BC will never be mentioned in return for their funding.

Apologies for rambling a bit, thanks again.

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Susan E.

11. Oct, 2009

Right on, Susie. I feel more critical of it this year than previously, maybe because the companies are so desperate for money that they’re trying to sell you things you don’t need in this economy in the name of the pink ribbon campaign. It’s an economic campaign. Colors and ribbons have become commodities to be bought and sold. All of them, I’m starting to suspect. I’ve always thought the giant sequin pink ribbons were pretty gaudy (one in Denver must be 10 feet high and somehow manages to defy local advertising codes.) Now in one groc store there are tons of the gaudiest mylar balloons, and I’m sure they’ll sell them to you. They don’t put stickers on bread or milk or eggs, only on things you don’t need. And sometimes, on other months, pink ribbons appear but there’s not even any language around linking it to donations or research or cures, or even breast cancer. I’ve started collecting pink ribbon advertising brochures and ephemera. I can already see the spinning. “What a difference a sale makes.” [To whom?, the patient or the retail giant?] And “For every Breast Cancer Awareness product you buy, a portion of the proceeds will go toward supporting Breast Cancer Research.” ["a portion...will go toward supporting...research.] It doesn’t even claim to go to the research, only to support it [with what, more ribbon campaigns?] The flourescent pink marker from a natl company doesn’t appear to have the ASTM less-toxic approval logo. I’ve been telling my friends for weeks: don’t settle at looking at the pink graphics, examine the accompanying text. Thanks, Susie, for bringing up the whole toxic chemical component. It’s right there when you look at it!

If you want to see another story about red tape and breast cancer see the link below. Pink ribbons give breast cancer an image-lift and may lessen a little stigma (we can only hope), but money even for treatment isn’t going where the mouth is. I guess no matter what your diagnosis or lack of diagnosis leads to, money doesn’t follow, unless you already have it, and then you fall through cracks until you’re dirt poor, and then sometimes die because no help comes even if in the end you happen to “qualify” for assistance [which often never happens because of catch-22 hoops]. All illnesses, especially MCS, could use a good publicity campaign to reduce stigmas and increase awareness and increase empathy. But in the end it’s usually the money that talks.

When they find a pill that you’re required to take the rest of your life to cure or treat MCS, then and only then will we get a diagnosis. Maybe that’s what happened to CFS this last week…. http://www.boulderweekly.com/20090730/coverstory.html

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Susie Collins

11. Oct, 2009

J.B. and Susan, thanks much for adding your thoughts to this post.

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Becky Claiborne

14. Oct, 2009

“Cure” or “Cause”?
Breast cancer has been on the rise since the mid 70′s. There are those with BC in their genes, and now many have gotten it without having a family history.
Will purchasing that pink spatula save us? NO. How about focusing on what matters …the cause.

Any public discussion about women taking BIRTH CONTROL PILLS?
How angered would you be if we found out in a few years that this is the cause? Hormone replacement caused a surge of cancer and tumors in menopausal women- ( and promptly banned) so why wouldn’t it be logical to assume that some synthetic estrogen taken daily is doing NO HARM WHATSOEVER?????

It is too political so people stay away, keeping “the cure” in the spotlight and “the cause” on the backburner.

So another bag of pink M&M’s will do nothing.

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Kerry

15. Oct, 2009

Susie, yes, the emphasis needs to be on what is causing this surge in breast cancer! Though I don’t boycott the month (I think the awareness it spreads gets many woman to do breast exams and get those mammographies). But, I find myself incredibly frustrated as there is no emphasis on prevention…or what is causing this epidemic.

Everyday woman put toxic products on their skin which is especially absorbant in the underarms…deoderant, anti-perspirant, lotion. They wear toxic perfume, shampoo their scalps with toxic shampoo, dye their hair with toxic dyes and spray it with toxic hair spray. As Becky wrote–since the 70′s the majority of woman are taking synthetic hormones in birth control pills.

A whole lot of the money raised during Breast Cancer Awareness Month needs to go to research to find the cause as much as the cure.

I’m glad to learn about Breast Cancer Action…an organization that is putting focus where it needs to be.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and thoughts Susie and your own experience with breast cancer.

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Susie Collins

16. Oct, 2009

Becky and Kerry, thank you for adding to the discussion.

This post has sparked so much emotion and strong feelings. I’ve read through everyone’s comments several times now.

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Brenna

17. Oct, 2009

How thought provoking. Up until now I had no idea there was any controversy surrounding Breast Cancer Awareness month, but I definitely see your point regarding cause vs. cure. It is not enough to wear pink and hand out pink ribbons. Awareness is important, but awareness of cause would change everything so drastically!

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Susie Collins

18. Oct, 2009

Aloha Brenna, thanks for being open to looking at this from another perspective!

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Jeanne

28. Oct, 2009

Susie,

I didn’t realize you are a breast cancer survivor.

I’m going to echo Jasmine’s comment: “right on”.

Over the years, I have noticed all of this pink ribbon proliferation and wondered things like, “how much of the money from the sale of this product will go to breast cancer research”? Like others, I have found the wording on such packaging to be vague.

Thank you for the informative post!

Jeanne

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Susie Collins

28. Oct, 2009

Aloha Jeanne,

Yep, survived the Big C. Not much of the money from pink ribbon campaigns goes to research, and the research is generally about Big Pharma anyway, not addressing the cause. That’s my beef. Also, the origin of the pink ribbon visual, although usually attributed to Estee Lauder VP Evelyn Lauder, was ripped off from a woman, Charlotte Hayley, a breast cancer survivor, who was making peach colored ribbons. She sold them with a card saying, “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is 1.8 billion US Dollars, and only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon.” Lauder tried to cut a deal with Hayley to use her concept, but she refused saying it was too commercial. So Lauder’s lawyers came up with the idea to change the color to pink, and rest is history: a pink ribbon campaign, built around October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, sponsored by companies who make products containing toxic chemicals.

I’m happy you stopped in, Jeanne. I hope you are doing well. xoxo

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Breast Cancer Action

28. Oct, 2009

Susie,

Thank you so much for posting this great blog and mentioning the work of Breast Cancer Action! We’re tirelessly working to challenge assumptions and inspire change regarding issues surrounding breast cancer. Thank you for spreading the word.

Breast Cancer Action
bcaction.org
thinkbeforeyoupink.org
milkingcancer.org

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Susie Collins

29. Oct, 2009

To all the good folks at Breast Cancer Action: Thank you for all your hard work! I truly appreciate you. Keep up the good work! Thanks much for stopping by. I’ll be back with another blog about this next October.

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Jannie Funster

30. Oct, 2009

This is very eye-opening for me,one who has no cancer nor family history of cancer.

Thanks for the Breast Cancer Action group tip.

(I came here from Jeanne’s Chronic healing.)

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Angelique

30. Oct, 2009

Susie –

I’m going to disagree with everyone here. I don’t think a boycott of BCAM by The Canary Report is in women’s best interests.

NBCAM is not a “holiday” created by corporations. It was created by an organization. Their website says:

“The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) organization is a partnership of national public service organizations, professional medical associations, and government agencies working together to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to screening services.”

The Canary Report is a public service organization. Maybe you’re not as famous as the PSOs who are mentioned on the NBCAM website, but you are one just the same. You can use the well-known “month of breast cancer info” to:

- Warn about pink-washing, and even call for a boycott of pink-washing companies.

- Call for more emphasis on causes, and less on cures.

- Spread information about the connection between chemicals and breast cancer.

- Promote Breast Cancer Action.

These messages are especially important during October, when all the pink-washing is going on. You can challenge the pink-washers head-on.

Just an idea for next year!

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Susie Collins

30. Oct, 2009

Aloha Jannie, so nice of you to visit. Still enjoying your music by the way!

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Susie Collins

30. Oct, 2009

Aloha Angelique, Thank you for your comment.

I see nothing in your quoted NBCAM mission above as addressing the cause of breast cancer. And that’s my beef. Here are their sponsors: http://www.nbcam.org/about_board_of_sponsors.cfm . Only two of their sponsors even mention “cause” and even then, their greater emphasis is placed on after-the-fact screening (ka-ching, ka-ching).

This is the action that NBCAM recommends to women in addressing breast cancer:

“… we remain dedicated to educating and empowering women to take charge of their own breast health by practicing regular self-breast exams to identify any changes, scheduling regular visits and annual mammograms with their healthcare provider, adhering to prescribed treatment, and knowing the facts about recurrence.”

Nothing about putting money and resources to discovering the cause of breast cancer. The fact is that NBCAM and the pink ribbon campaign are fully funded by corporate interests that make money from breast cancer or from products promoting breast cancer awareness. It appears they have no vested interest in pursuing the cause of breast cancer.

BTW, just a point of clarification. I don’t really think of The Canary Report as a public service organization. I’m just a blogger interested in connecting and sharing information with others who have MCS. Most people with MCS fully understand the need to eliminate toxic chemicals, from both the environment and the marketplace, as a major key to ensuring public health. I believe that’s why my message of boycotting Breast Cancer Awareness Month and its focus on “cure” rather than “cause” resonates with my readers.

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Susan E.

30. Oct, 2009

Hola from the western u.s.- I don’t know if it was my MCS or just a few entries on blogs like this that made me start questioning everything pink I saw all month. I even saw pink advertisements from mail and in stores with the “politically-correct-shade-of-pink” that didn’t mention breast cancer at all, in any way, shape or form. So now the color “pink,” at least in the month of “October” is used to SELL. Nothing I saw said anything about prevention or etiologies. Breast exams are not “prevention.” Think about it. Tonight I picked up a free pink ribbon calendar and thought the women on the cover looked “stilted.” On the back it advertises the wardrobe, makeup and hair companies that provided the women highlighted with an odd “glitzy” look. Shiny jewelry, shimmering gowns, lipstick and (could it be “rouge.”) Somehow the group image on the back of the sweaty marchers said volumes more…. I suspect this is pinkwashers at work claiming that this large company raises nearly $60 million to “battle breast cancer.” What is a “breast cancer battle” and what would it look like to a someone on the front lines? Read Audre Lorde’s “The Cancer Journals.” She was a sometimes-angry black poet who wrote about fighting breast cancer in her body long before the pink ribbons came along. She kept asking “why?” And she was on to something, even then. She must be turning over in her grave every October! Long live Audre Lorde!

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Susie Collins

30. Oct, 2009

Hola and aloha Susan, it is quite sobering when you look behind the pink curtain, isn’t it? Follow the money. I’ve always wanted to read The Cancer Journals. I’ve also wanted to read Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag, written during her own experience with breast cancer, which she did not reveal until much later after publication.

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Sheryl Ellinwood

31. Oct, 2009

I am so glad that many women are starting to realize that BC awareness month, pink ribbons and walks and races for the “cure” are not just worthless ( and often hypocritical) in regards to any efforts to cure cancer, but are also actually counterproductive. I just published a book on breast cancer prevention and treatments (and yes I am a BC “survivor”—another term I think needs to be done away with) in which I explain how the money raised through these efforts creates a false sense that something is being done to find a cure. The only thing being supported through these efforts is more mammography–which is not prevention—and can actually cause breast cancer– but rakes in huge profits for these companies.

It gets even worse. More mammograms equals more diagnoses of a pre-cancerous condition called DCIS. This pre-cancerous condition is being labeled as breast cancer so that it can be lumped into the breast cancer “cure” statistics to falsely make those rates go up—making it look like some progress is being made. Worse still, many of the organizations funded through these efforts—like the American Cancer Society– actually work to block efforts that would prevent cancer. They have successfully blocked laws that would ban cancer-causing toxins from our food and cosmetics. They have blocked the dissemination of information on alternative cancer treatments that are non-toxic but much more effective than chemo and radiation. They refuse to publish information on prevention through dietary changes.

It will take more BC warriors to speak out against this fraud before any real progress will be made against this disease!!

Sheryl Ellinwood
author, EMPOWERED, A Woman-to-Woman Guide to Preventing & Surviving Breast Cancer

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Susie Collins

01. Nov, 2009

Aloha Sheryl, thanks so much for visiting and leaving your comment. Your book looks great! Your blog is full of good info, too. Your focus on prevention is commendable. We are SO on the same page. Thanks again for adding your thoughts to this discussion. Aloha, Susie

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CatherineWO

01. Nov, 2009

I am late to this discussion and have not read all the comments, but I am so happy to know that I am not the only person with these feelings about the whole pink-ribbon campaign. I actually have never voiced my feelings publicly, always afraid that I would come off as uncaring. But I feel the commercialism of this campaign and the direction of it (cure instead of prevention) does such a disservice to women. I’m so glad to know that there are others (and organized groups) who feel the same way. Thank you!

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Susie Collins

01. Nov, 2009

Aloha Catherine, It’s nice to hear from you! Never too late to chime in. I really struck a chord with this post, huh? I think those of us who have been damaged by toxic chemicals are keenly aware of corporate interests trumping public health. We are not a crowd that is easily fooled into thinking a splash of pink designed to sell consumer goods is going to solve the problem.

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celia

21. Dec, 2009

It probably sounds absurd for me to say ‘amen’ to everything said on here, but I do say ‘amen’ to this.
I, too, am weary of the way this campaign seems to favor the continuation, dare I say commercialization of cancer–

and I’ve been WARY of it as well–
without speaking up–
I’ve just quietly ignored it, praying I don’t have cancer–
and trying to avoid the things that make me ill–

I don’t have breast cancer that I am aware of, but I am profoundly uninsured and undoctored, and what I have heard/read about mammograms lately also alarms me–

those of us who don’t participate in this may feel ignored or isolated or invisible, but I feel more empowered not letting them have access to my body–
but that’s just me; years ago I had a lot of invasive experiences with regards to medicine that changed me for life, so I’m ornery now–

Reply to this comment
Susie Collins

22. Dec, 2009

Aloha Celia, yep, we are all a little ornery, and with good reason, my friend, with good reason.

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Sherryll Johnson

12. Feb, 2010

Well it’s seems I have come to the right place—

“traces how breast cancer has been transformed from a stigmatized disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship.” King maintains that corporations, under the guise of philanthropy, “turn their formidable promotion machines on the curing of the disease while dwarfing public health prevention efforts and stifling the calls for investigation into why and how breast cancer affects such a vast number of people.” I couldn’t agree more.”

I’ve been thinking on these very lines for some time now and even voiced my concerns a few times, but considering I’m usually in the minority and perhaps dealing with friends or family who have breast cancer. It makes it difficult to speak up.

I absolutely agree, it’s more about prevention than cure.

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- Susie Collins
  
  13. Feb, 2010
  
  Aloha Sherryll, this can be such a difficult thing to discuss! It can be painful and very confusing for many people to dig a little deeper into the issue to see the true meaning of things. I felt this way about the pink ribbon campaign before I had breast cancer, and even more so after. We simply must turn our resources more toward cause than cure and get that problem fixed first. I feel that way about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, too.
  
  Reply to this comment
BCAction

21. Apr, 2010

What the Cluck? Tell KFC and Susan G. Komen for the Cure to stop pinkwashing!
With their “Buckets for the Cure” campaign, KFC and Susan G. Komen for the Cure are telling us to buy buckets of unhealthy food to cure a disease that kills women. When a company purports to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribboned product, but manufactures products that are linked to the disease, we call that pinkwashing. Make no mistake–every pink bucket purchase will do more to benefit KFC’s bottom line than it will to cure breast cancer. Join us in telling KFC and Susan G. Komen for the Cure to rethink this pinkwashing partnership.

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