You Too Can Practice Breast Cancer Awareness
Pink rubber duckies. Pink buckets of fried chicken. Pink professional football shoes. A Smith & Wesson handgun with a pink grip. All to promote breast cancer awareness. But where is all the money going? That’s what Gayle Sulik would like to know. Her new book Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health “is part of a growing backlash against a movement that critics say has become more focused on making money than finding a cure.”
Good question. Where does all the money go?
It sounds a little like sour grapes. The breast cancer awareness advocates have a much better outreach and fundraising than other advocacies for specific diseases and conditions. With success comes its detractors.
I suspect the money doesn’t go to cure breast cancer. That’s not sour grapes. I’m afraid it’s reality.
Even within the cancer fighting community (dozens of different groups fighting dozens of different cancers), there is some heartburn about all the focus on breast cancer. The pink ribbon, and eventually co-opting the color pink, was a brilliant marketing strategy you have to admit.
I think the money people pay for all the pink ribbons goes to purchase more pink ribbons — minus overhead and fundraising expensese, of course.