As a breast cancer survivor, I have always had a dislike for the various 'pink' campaigns that pop up in October (and other times as well). I've had well meaning friends add my name to 'survivor walls' and on tags that are pasted to windows in work areas. I've had friends run a 5K in my honor (what did I do to deserve that? Nothing, I got sick and survived.) I love them for their intent and caring but when I see these types of display it makes me feel sick. When you've had breast cancer, you are marked for life; people define you in the context of the disease. Nine years later I still have people ask 'how are your feeling?' not as a general question but specifically referencing breast cancer. The best thing someone can do is to let go of the issue and let us resume our healthy place in society. Stop defining us by our disease. By the way, none of my friends have organized a 5K run to raise awareness of my Diverticulitis. Hmm.
10
I am a 2-time breast cancer survivor. I donate directly to organizations that send high percentage of donations to actual research and real patient support. I don't wear a lot of pink and ignore pink lids in the supermarket. Spend your energy helping a friend or researching where best to give your funds
9
I once made the mistake of scheduling my mammogram during October. Pink everywhere, and every woman getting a mamogram got a pink rose. Sickening: the marketing seemed to link pink, femininity, and cancer. Meanwhile, the high rates of cancer are probably due to environmental toxins. These toxins, mamograms, and cancer treatment all feed the same industrial machine to make profits for shareholder capitalism.
4
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”
John Lydgate, poet 1370-1449
John Lydgate, poet 1370-1449
I am in complete agreement. Spreading awareness, though a commendable effort, achieves very little in terms of progressing towards a cure. As some have mentioned already, there are very few people who are unaware of current screening guidelines, or of the existence of the disease. It's unfortunate that we now correlate the amount of progress made to the amount of money thrown at the problem, as what we actually get out of it is a disjointed effort that yields very little result. There should be collaboration, and focus on determining the root cause of breast cancer, so that more information and awareness could be spread regarding disease prevention. We should be striving towards a cure for those women (and men) who are currently suffering with this disease, while also working towards lowering its incidence.
3
Slogans and "awareness" are easy ways to make money and make people think something is happening when in fact budgets and funding for actual research are slashed and government demonized. Meanwhile we fund war after war and tax cuts for phony "economic growth." Hucksterism and advertising rule the day and people eat it up. Keep voting against your interests, people! "Pinkification" is what you get.
7
I'm a Delta Airlines flight attendant and am proud that my employer has given me the opportunity not only to raise awareness but to also take action. I wear my pink uniform with pride and am genuinely humbled by the generosity of our customers. Employees take donations but we also make them. Today, while traveling as a passenger, I donated $100.00 to the cause. It's not much, but it is action. I could mention many of my colleagues stories but the bottom line is that we do it because we care. And I really don't think that is a bad thing.
4
The pink nonsense makes me CRINGE. And my mother had breast cancer.
4
I used to be sick and tired with Breast Cancer but I am now sick and tired of 'Pinkification'. Any one who has a modicum of intelligence will be "Aware" and realise that this is just another way for corporations to make money for themselves and to promote their brand.
B.C. is not the only cancer...There is a big problem here in the U.K. with the amount of money raised vs the amount put into research.
Thankfully the research has worked for me.
B.C. is not the only cancer...There is a big problem here in the U.K. with the amount of money raised vs the amount put into research.
Thankfully the research has worked for me.
5
Are you kidding me?....BILLIONS for AWARENESS? What a scam.
6
How about talking about the reason why. A cure is irrelevant to the people that already died and the people that are sick and dying now since a cure will most likely never be found. Like the war on terror ask why and when you find that answer you will find a cure
3
The pink campaign seems to have given rise to the same cynical approach that the yellow ribbon/"support the troops" campaign has done. Everyone wants to feel good about themselves, but few want to do anything about the real problem.
4
As someone who was treated for a non-breast cancer 50 years ago and happily haven't heard from it since, I am especially annoyed by the narrow use of the term "survivor" only for people who have had breast cancer. About 15 years ago I came to visit a friend scheduled for breast cancer surgery to be told that she'd talk later, as she was "talking to a survivor" on the phone.
4
The pink thing was pretty cute at first, but has gotten out of hand. I expect to see someone at the Halloween party I'm attending tonight dressed as a pink ribbon. Breast cancer is awful; pink ribbons have become even more awful.
4
Normally, I like pink. But this campaign is such overkill, the color makes me want to puke. I'm almost hostile towards everything bathed in the color. Is it necessary to have one month of pink-how about a day? It's not an unknown disease-we are well aware of breast cancer. I don't think if they stopped the pink campaign that the world would forget about breast cancer and it's victims.
5
I can not believe that newspapers still are writing articles on this subject. This is a non-factor, a non-issue. There are 100 other stories that need to be told and yet every year like clockwork we have to read another article like this. Every year a quote from the National Breast Cancer Coalition and Breast Cancer Action complaining about this. Really?! Do we still need to be talking about this? I say get over it and let's start writing about real issues.
How about an article on metastatic disease and that 2% of all cancer funding goes to support the part of the disease that is taking lives?
How about an article on the percentage of grant dollars that charities give and what percentage actually is having an impact on the disease OR what percentage is given to studies that do not produce any useful data?
How about an article on the serious challenges of scientific collaboration and discovery? The roadblocks of CREDIT, MONEY, ACCOLADES and petty feuds between doctors and scientists.
I run a nonprofit and yes we do jump on the pink bandwagon, but our funds are making a real impact on the future of treatment and we see pink as a color of solidarity; a color that brings people together around our goals/mission....not awareness. There are lots of charities that are doing amazing work that jump on the pink bandwagon and they shouldn't be lumped in to this box. Let the pink thing go and start writing about real issues.
How about an article on metastatic disease and that 2% of all cancer funding goes to support the part of the disease that is taking lives?
How about an article on the percentage of grant dollars that charities give and what percentage actually is having an impact on the disease OR what percentage is given to studies that do not produce any useful data?
How about an article on the serious challenges of scientific collaboration and discovery? The roadblocks of CREDIT, MONEY, ACCOLADES and petty feuds between doctors and scientists.
I run a nonprofit and yes we do jump on the pink bandwagon, but our funds are making a real impact on the future of treatment and we see pink as a color of solidarity; a color that brings people together around our goals/mission....not awareness. There are lots of charities that are doing amazing work that jump on the pink bandwagon and they shouldn't be lumped in to this box. Let the pink thing go and start writing about real issues.
2
I have stage IV BC. My second go-round with the disease. I write about this issue in my doctoral research. I am an ACS office and Relay volunteer and a Breast Cancer Action activist. I do GTA training of medical students to teach them how to communicate effectively with female patients on the table during exams. I have to ask 'Why have we taken so long to question the global marketing of this disease'? I suggest that it is that the cultural meanings that are embedded in the pink ribbon that prevent us from complaining. Instead, too many of us, If we buy a pink blender, we tell ourselves that at least 10% of the purchase price will go to some state-of-the art research institution. What we will not follow up on is to find out is whether the promised 10% was more like .10% (Amex did this) and in many cases the donation was a one time deal--capped at typically 50m or 100m. We don't question marketing pragmatics because this disease happens to our mothers and sisters. They wouldn't hurt a fly! How dare we question Ford's good intentions! As a patient who will never recover (in this life) from this disease, I am angered by the lack of attention focused on why 40m women and men are still dying every year from breast cancer. I am angry that people are dying of other cancers and they do not have the NFL or Avon celebrating them as a movement. It's time for a lot more of us to get angry and loud. Excuse me for now, I have to go drink a nice glass of cabernet and eat a BLT.
11
I've had it with the breast cancer focus in general. Heart disease kills far more women. Last summer a wonderful colleague in her late 40s died of colon cancer; my mom died in her 60s of ALS; a knew a fine lawyer who died in her 30s of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
I have walked with women through breast cancer treatment; I know that it is no picnic; I know that it turns lives upside down. Still, there are many other illnesses which devastate women's lives. After a time, the breast cancer establishment has started to seem self-involved, sure that theirs is the only or the most important illness for women's concern. Breast cancer matters, as all cancer matters, but the health needs and concerns of women (and men) are far broader than your corner of the market.
I have walked with women through breast cancer treatment; I know that it is no picnic; I know that it turns lives upside down. Still, there are many other illnesses which devastate women's lives. After a time, the breast cancer establishment has started to seem self-involved, sure that theirs is the only or the most important illness for women's concern. Breast cancer matters, as all cancer matters, but the health needs and concerns of women (and men) are far broader than your corner of the market.
12
I agree. When I had breast cancer (which is often treatable and in my case, was successfully treated), people acted as though I deserved some great honor. However, my husband, who has Alzheimer's disease (which is ALWAYS terminal and for which there is NO effective treatment) is dealt with as though he is a leper.
I'm really sick of the competition among diseases.
I'm really sick of the competition among diseases.
10
My concern are the individuals who are profiting from these campaigns. The administrators of several of these campagins are amking a ton of money that research never sees. The only significant break thru in breast cancer has come out of genetic research.
8
Worldwide the leading cause of death (WHO 2012) is Hypertensive Heart Disease (48.6% of all deaths).Cancer isn't even among the Top Ten: It is merely in 10th place in "upper-income countries". Hence, this breast cancer marketing is deceptive even if the marketers find it important to themselves. The amount of money spent on marketing and by the businesses and other organizations drummed into turning pink could be far more useful were it directed to cancer research of all kinds, which would at least serve all cancer patients, not just overwhelmingly women.
7
The breast cancer industry is twice as big as tobacco, and you how hard it's been to get rid of them! When an industry makes somewhere in the ballpark of $20 billion dollars a year, and a preventive vaccine such as the one that is used against HPV/cervical cancer has a market cap of $1 billion, it's easy to follow the money around in circles as we race to find a cure that no one is really looking for. Meanwhile, there's a breast cancer virus that looks like it will have the last word. History will show how silly we were to try to cure a disease that we can prevent.
2
As with every other charity for every other problem where I live, it's hold a 5K, throw a gala, hand out plaques to the local hacks, and then do it all again. One local breast cancer charity closed down after it ran out of money (too many galas and plaques), and its overpaid CEO started another one.
It could be worse. I had a fake breast cancer charity call my cellphone pretending to look for someone else. The person then said, "OK, maybe you can help me. I'm raising money for the Breast Cancer Society."
I hit the hangup button quickly.
Imagine if all the money raised for breast cancer research actually went into breast cancer research. It's every breast cancer charity executive's worst nightmare: they might find a cure.
It could be worse. I had a fake breast cancer charity call my cellphone pretending to look for someone else. The person then said, "OK, maybe you can help me. I'm raising money for the Breast Cancer Society."
I hit the hangup button quickly.
Imagine if all the money raised for breast cancer research actually went into breast cancer research. It's every breast cancer charity executive's worst nightmare: they might find a cure.
22
Awareness has run its course and it's time for a change in narrative. The BC community is disgusted with the objectifcation (and yes, infantilization) of a deadly disease. Despite all the so-called 'awareness', few people could identify known risks for BC (much less how to minimize them) or know that men can get BC too, is proof the current paradigm is ineffective. BC has become an excuse to drink, take topless selfies, and celebrate survivors -- all while ignoring the most vulnerable in the BC community: people with metastatic disease. And therein lies the dirty little detail of BC -- our 'secret handshake'. How many people outside the BC community have even heard of metastatic disease? For the uninitiated, it's Stage IV disease. Terminal. Incurable. BC that has spread to a person's bones, lung, liver, or brain. And 30% of people diagnosed with early stage disease could find themselves with such a diagnosis.
Companies and brands cash in on the yearly "pink Christmas" with countless products sporting pink ribbons that contain KNOWN links to BC: BPA. Alcohol. Parabens. Soy Protein Isolate. The issue isn't with the products per se, but marketing them under the guise of BC awareness. The fine print includes caps on donations or states 'a portion of proceeds' will be donated to a BC organization. Well that's lovely. WHICH ONE and WHAT PERCENTAGE? No one should have to call a company or go to their website to obtain this info -- and often, it doesn't even exist. Disgraceful.
Companies and brands cash in on the yearly "pink Christmas" with countless products sporting pink ribbons that contain KNOWN links to BC: BPA. Alcohol. Parabens. Soy Protein Isolate. The issue isn't with the products per se, but marketing them under the guise of BC awareness. The fine print includes caps on donations or states 'a portion of proceeds' will be donated to a BC organization. Well that's lovely. WHICH ONE and WHAT PERCENTAGE? No one should have to call a company or go to their website to obtain this info -- and often, it doesn't even exist. Disgraceful.
10
I never did get it. What, are people not "aware" there's breast cancer? If this were ever a campaign to simply raise funds directly for research we could have a cure by now. Where is the campaign against the chemicals industry, AKA "cosmetics," that has been overwhelming women's esteem for decades? Why don't I see studies galore about the effects this avalanche of chemicals has had on the female body??
16
I agree with this article and am a little surprised that the commercialism isn't obvious to people.
My main comment, though, is about the use of the word "campaign" in the piece. I think it's interesting that the author write "Avon's campaign has an awareness component."
I had sort of thought that the word "campaign" in the sense of a breast cancer campaign was along the lines of an advertising campaign (so that awareness and communicating the opportunity to donate is the main goal).
Maybe, in fact, the "campaign" is more like a military campaign against breast cancer, which would seem to be the more useful thing.
My main comment, though, is about the use of the word "campaign" in the piece. I think it's interesting that the author write "Avon's campaign has an awareness component."
I had sort of thought that the word "campaign" in the sense of a breast cancer campaign was along the lines of an advertising campaign (so that awareness and communicating the opportunity to donate is the main goal).
Maybe, in fact, the "campaign" is more like a military campaign against breast cancer, which would seem to be the more useful thing.
1
How amazing and transformative it would be if America embraced the awareness campaign for (against) domestic violence, which also occurs in October. The sight of the NFL wearing purple gear (err, lilac to avoid confusion with team colors) would go a long way towards helping people take this seriously.
6
This reminds me of the calls we used to get for Veteran's this and that. And then someone did an exposé on the fact that 99% of the cash went to these organizations to promote themselves and pay themselves for their administrative costs - and that you need to ask. By law they have to tell you.
They should give the pink money to Planned Parenthood- they are actually taking the heat for serving actual women, not some feel-good ad campaign.
They should give the pink money to Planned Parenthood- they are actually taking the heat for serving actual women, not some feel-good ad campaign.
17
The industry of making plastic pink ribbons, themselves carcinogenic..
oh the irony.
oh the irony.
9
While I agree that the pink campaigns are overdone, and risk losing attention -- let alone gaining results -- for actual research and treatment improvements, the breast cancer awareness movement can occasionally spark a bit of creativity. I cite the name of a nearby teenage girls' softball tournament last season, "Save Second Base."
1
Actually, "Save Second Base" campaigns have been around for quite some time now. Many women (myself included) don't find them cute or creative at all, but offensive because they sexualize a serious disease that kills and prioritize saving a body part over saving the life of the person attached to it. And they ignore men, who get breast cancer too.
Note you don't see any "Save the Family Jewels" campaigns against testicular cancer.
One more problem with "awareness*: it overemphasizes the importance of early detection, which doesn't always make a huge difference in breast cancer survival. Breast cancer " caught early " and treated successfully can recur years later, having metastasized and become lethal. We need more research into metastatic cancer, not pink feel-good parties every October.
Note you don't see any "Save the Family Jewels" campaigns against testicular cancer.
One more problem with "awareness*: it overemphasizes the importance of early detection, which doesn't always make a huge difference in breast cancer survival. Breast cancer " caught early " and treated successfully can recur years later, having metastasized and become lethal. We need more research into metastatic cancer, not pink feel-good parties every October.
16
"Save Second Base." How offensive!
1
I think raising awareness is great, but raising additional money - in lieu of stocking up on pink handcuffs - is greater. Has this become the ice-bucket challenge of the season?
2
All these awareness schemes do is give people who don't care the opportunity to make it look to other people like they do. Even empathy is apparently for sale here in the land where anything and everything can be had for cash.
6
I hate to pit one disease against another, but I do wish that Type 1 diabetes received more attention. The incidence is rising hugely, and the toll it takes on the health of our nation is not sufficiently appreciated. Diabetes causes heart disease, stroke, kidney damage, and eye damage, among other things, to say nothing of the difficulty people with diabetes face trying to balance their food intake, exercise, and insulin shots on a daily basis. My daughter developed diabetes when she was 9 months old and has been taking shots and checking her blood sugar 10 times a day ever since.... and she is 27 years old. We all need to be far more aware of so many medical conditions, beyond the pink that so many people (including woman-abusing football players) find it so easy to don to make themselves feel as though they are "tackling" a problem.
6
Why do you "hate to pit one disease against another"? The fundraising industry does it all the time.
1
I was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I am amazed at the amount of "swag" I got from both the hospital when I went in for a biopsy and from my surgeon's office when I went in for an initial conversation about what lies ahead. I now have pink blankets, little pillows, bracelets, visors, t-shirts, memo pads, etc. It's all a huge waste of money. This stuff is provided by the big cancer organizations we support, under the guise of "spreading cancer awareness'. We are all plenty aware. Give me literature but don't give me pink junk. I don't like losing a breast or part of one. Wearing pink isn't going to help me feel more feminine as I learn to cope with what is coming. Spend the money on research. Spend the money on forcing doctors and insurance insurance companies to order and pay for MRI's, which show so much more than a mammogram can.
27
Perhaps those rushing to adorn themselves in pink could vote for candidates who are aware that Planned Parenthood provides essential reproductive health care - including mammograms - to many women who might not otherwise have such care.
13
When women accept that what they eat is a VAST majority of what causes their ailments then we can make progress. This obsession with PROTEIN has got to stop especially from animal products and absolutely from Dairy... It has been proven time and time again that dairy products cause cancer. You do NOT need massive protein nor calcium intakes. When you look at the breast cancer and osteoporosis in the world, you will see that the countries with the highest intake of dairy have the highest incidences. All your wishing and pinking wont make facts go away. I am looked at as crazy when I suggest this but women think that hoping and praying and pinking will cure them... yeah, sure.. ok.
4
I think it's been more than a decade since Barbara Ehrenreich talked about the "infantilizing trope" of all this pink detritus. It's about time the NYT got the message.
9
I'd rather see the NFL take a stronger stance on punishment for their players who are charged with domestic violence and other offenses their players commit off the field than have their players wear pink. Otherwise, it's all meaningless coming from that organisation.
9
Nearly two decades ago, I and a co-author wrote a book about cancer and environmental toxins. The resistance to hearing about this, talking about it, reading about it, is so strong that we could not find a publisher for our book. Much has been written since, more and more research is turning up links, but it never seems to make it into mainstream media, where it counts. There is a cancer epidemic, and it's not because we're living longer, as is claimed; it's in our food, water, air. But it's still something nobody wants to talk/hear/read about--there are many powerful, vested interests that would have to clean up their act. But many of the breast cancer advocacy groups knew than, and will tell you now--we've had it with the pink!
12
It was a noble cause. However, it has risen to the level of such commercialism as to make it irrelevant. I wear pink some times because I like the color, not because I wish someone to associate it with a particular sentiment, or cause. Like certain words, "Gay"for example. "Gay" used to mean something completely different. It meant, happy of spirit, fun loving, etc. Now no one under the age of 100 uses that word except in relation to sexual orientation. I don't want the same thing happening to the color PINK.
3
Did you know that scientists have found the breast cancer virus in human saliva and they think this is how it's passed in the population? The article was published in Oncotarget in July, 2015. The lead author is G. Bevilacqua who lead a team of 16 scientists from three countries in the study. We could put an end to pink, I believe, if we paid more attention to the virus and developed a vaccine similar to the one we have against HPV/cervical cancer.
4
Thank heaven people are waking up to the "pinkification" -- branding, commodification -- of cancer. And thanks to Ms. Kolata and the Times for this. At best, the pink-ribbon movement is overdone, at worst cynical, hypocritical and way too easy. The campaign does help women (and men) with the disease to feel less isolated. And there may be a couple of mortals who need information. But what about the rest of us? I knew the thing had gone too far when a pink ribbon flashed up at me years ago from the bottom of a Jonny Cat litter bag as I innocently dumped the stuff into a pan. There's no escape. Cancer is a disease. It should not define us. We are more than cancer, and we are not more valuable than those without. We are certainly more than the dread term "survivors." Life is to be survived. Sickness is a part of life. Sickness -- even cancer -- can be a meaningful, even revelatory element in a good and well-lived life.
8
You have many good points, especially related to the overcommercialization of cancer. That said, I'd still rather see a world without cancer than one with it. It may be a meaningful, revelatory element of life, but so are a lot more pleasant things.
2
It seems to me that the majority of BCAM efforts, including those of the NFL, are cynical marketing campaigns that exploit the plights of sick women for the sake of commercial profit. It's offensive.
6
It is a good time for the various organizations that have supported and done outstanding work in raising breast cancer awareness to pivot. Despite the wacko suggestion that mammograms may not be necessary on a regular basis under a certain age, women should be encouraged to have periodic mammograms, sonograms, and Sonocine examinations and adults of all ages (men and women) who have breast cancer in their family's histories should be encouraged to have BRAC testing and to pass the results on to their children. Progress is being made on every form of cancer, and, perhaps, more progress has been made on detection and saving the lives of women who have breast cancer than on any other type of this vicious disease thanks to the convergence of medical research and public awareness. It is hard to believe that any harm has come from the latter side of this equation. Yes, the upper middle class has helped to overdo the usual materiality associated with it, but continuity of awareness is critical to the decline of deaths historically related to breast cancer.
1
The new suggestions related to mammograms are not "wacko," they're realistic, given the inherent dangers of mammogram radiation and the relevant risks, including the risk of overtreating an indolent form of breast cancer that will never be dangerous enough to kill.
2
Also, the decline in deaths is not that high. Not if you remove from the pool all those overtreated for non-lethal cancers and look at how many were successfully treated at an earlier stage when first diagnosed but later had Stage III or IV recurrences from which they died. Those stories tend to get buried in the "winning the war on breast cancer" hoopla.
3
The pink campaign is primarily a money-making machine. The research dollars that reach the benchtop are similar to the trickle that is now left of the Colorado River by the time it reaches Mexico. One positive I must say, is that has galvanized post-menopausal women (a demographic that suffers from a disproportionate rate of depression) in activities and engaged them in a community of peers toward a common purpose. We could all use a little more of that. Too bad it takes a gimmick like a silly pink armband to achieve it.
5
pink is empty calories without political muscle behind women's access to health care, especially screening and treatment of all cancers. This is the equivalent of all that tying a yellow ribbon, or putting a yellow ribbon decal on a car bumper, but not thinking critically or acting politically to end a pointless war, or replace the politicians who bought into it. Empty calories and lost lives.
7
May we please switch for a number of years to gray ribbons, and seek to promote awareness of how women are continuing to outlive men by a significant number of years? Were the situation reversed, this would be the focus of a national outcry.
2
The Pink Campaign needs to evolve. It served a purpose early on to bring attention to this scourge that kills 40,000 women in the US each year. Now the pink campaign degrades those of us who suffer from metastatic disease. I dread the pink every year. The breast cancer that kills, metastatic disease, is misunderstood -- you can't walk or run your way out of it. The "survivor" events don't want us around. I wish we could sweep up the millions that are wasted on the pink campaign and fund solid research that will save the lives of those of us with metastatic disease - our wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, grandmothers.
5
Lots of calls for more research into a CURE, which I agree with. But everybody realize that that would be from government funding (tax dollars), right? There would be no profit in curing a disease and certainly not in preventing it via a vaccine -- lots of companies would go out of business if we did. So if you are simultaneously calling for more research into prevention and cures AND you also want to pay less in taxes and see less government-funded projects, your positions are at odds with each other. If you really do want to see a cure or prevention, vote accordingly.
5
When the money changing hands for ads & marketing gets to the suffers and survivors of every devastating disease we won't need color to recognize the rewards. In Pittsburgh players on the Steelers are being "FINED" for acknowledging their dead loved ones with inconspicuous symbols on their bodies or uniforms yet the NFL teams are drenching themselves in pink. It's become ubiquitous and annoying.
2
It's America's M.O. to overdo things.
1
This article does a disservice to breast cancer agencies, some of which are pink-themed, that help patients in various ways: support to individuals affected, research funds, education, advocacy and more. Mixing the White House image and pink handcuffs conflates good and strange practices; not all "pinkification" is the same.
3
Dr. Kirsten Brandt, a professor doing nutritional research at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne in the U.K., has found that mice injected with carcinogens develop one third fewer large tumors when they are fed carrots or the carrot compound falcarinol in their chow. She needs funding to continue her mouse and carrot research, but can't find any organization to support it. Falcarinol is a natural pesticide that the carrots produce to defend their roots against molds and fungi. Without radiation or chemo, carrot consumption cured me of Stage 4 colon cancer. (And has cured others, too, as described in my book, Curing Cancer with Carrots.) I recommend anyone really wanting to fund research to fund Dr. Brandt or nutritional cancer research being carried out at many universities world wide.
1
We need a lot more "awareness" and publicity out there about all the things that we know now (even without better testing, treatment, or more research) can significantly reduce risk: not getting overweight, exercising regularly, eating lots of cruciferous greens and also things like flax seed (for the lignans), not smoking EVER (of course), not drinking alcohol regularly, etc. If people are genuinely interested in the health of your breasts, they should be telling you about these things. If they're not, be suspicious of their motives.
1
As a retired non-profit development person, I always fought using simple -minded symbols instead of well-written position statements and pleas. After decades I've come to the conclusion that the silly symbols DO indeed work to bring in more money with less effort than the protracted position statements I prefer. Do they also create many of the jaundiced comments read here? Yep...and I understand the rolling eyes when one sees some fashionista/celebrity wearing them. But we live in a nation of symbols, "sayings," trademarks, pop-ups, texting and icons. And my job was to bring in the most financial support I could for the causes I believed in. If pink fatigue decreases the money going to those causes, then it is indeed time for a new approach. But I haven't experienced that. I guess my advice to the eye rollers is to get over the medium and embrace (or not) the message.
4
The message isn't even accurate, though. The overemphasis on early detection is misleading and the sexualization ("Save the Boobies," etc.) is insulting. So is being scolded to just shut up and be grateful for whatever's being done, whether or not it does any real good.
5
Can you hear the clamor? Women like me want more than crass awareness, even if at it's heart it was once well-intentioned. Women with and without breast cancer want to see results. A woman dying every minute and another being diagnosed with breast cancer every 20 seconds are NOT the results we hoped to see. The fact that the incidence of breast cancer has increased 300% in the past 40 years is not the result we were promised. Pink is no longer reassuring. Women want to embrace something hopeful, and this race has lost the hope it once promised us. Still, overall breast cancer survival for all cases of lingers around 70%. It hasn't changed a bit for women with Stage IV disease. Want a change? Try this: Fund research on the breast cancer virus. Develop a vaccine. Put an end to pink and send all the mammogram machines to China to be melted down for paperclips. With all the paperwork coming out of Washington, paper clips should go sky high next year.
11
Breast cancer awareness is harmless, except to the extent that it diverts attention from other threats to women's health. Lung cancer, not breast cancer, has been the #1 cancer killer of American women for approximately 30 years, and coronary artery disease kills more American women than either form of cancer. Are those facts well known? Do advocates for women's health put enough effort into promoting awareness of lung cancer and coronary artery disease? I support breast cancer awareness, but I think that the priorities are not quite right.
4
Walmart is having a campaign to let homeless veterans know that we care about them by asking everyone to shine a green light. Of course, Walmart sells green lights. Have not heard anything about Walmart raising the wages of the veterans who work for them at minimum wage.
12
Got a free pink lunch bag when I got my mammo this month. I don't mind a little pink, but I think it is overdone. Of course, I have not had breast CA, like my SIL, who was dx'd w/ Stage 4. She is an 8-year survivor and loves pink everything.
1
The campaign increased awareness and proved that people and corporations are willing to help. There is nothing wrong with modifying the effort off of commercial products and to direct support for women.
this just proves that the most successful campaigns have to evolve over time.
this just proves that the most successful campaigns have to evolve over time.
2
The US never knew a good idea it couldn't beat to death.
4
I think that a lot of women need help with their health care bills and staying insured, more than they need another ribbon.
24
Thank you, Red Ree. That says it all.
6
The hypocrisy is truly astounding and far-reaching. It's nauseating. PREVENTION is the ONLY cure...and its clear that the data now exists to support the existence of the breast cancer VIRUS and a preventive VACCINE that shows incredible promise is currently in the works. This is where our tireless efforts should be directed. It's about time the truth be told and and it's time for all of us to demand action. Theres's simply too many women dying and families being destroyed...
http://thepinkvirus.com
http://breasthealthandhealing.org
http://thepinkvirus.com
http://breasthealthandhealing.org
1
The tyranny of the ribbon (from "The Sponge" episode of "Seinfeld"). Need anything more be said?
[Kramer is cornered in an alley for not wearing the red ribbon at the AIDS walk]
Bob: So, what's it going to be? Are you going to wear the ribbon?
Cosmo Kramer: No! Never!
Bob: But I'm wearing wearing the ribbon.
[points to Cedric]
Bob: He's wearing the ribbon. We are all wearing the ribbon! So why aren't *you* going to wear the ribbon?
Cosmo Kramer: [yelling] This is America! I don't have to wear anything I don't wanna wear!
Cedric: What are we going to do with him?
Cosmo Kramer: Huh?
Bob: I guess we will just have to teach him to wear the ribbon!
[Kramer to escape up the fire escape, but is dragged down by the other AIDS walkers]
[Kramer is cornered in an alley for not wearing the red ribbon at the AIDS walk]
Bob: So, what's it going to be? Are you going to wear the ribbon?
Cosmo Kramer: No! Never!
Bob: But I'm wearing wearing the ribbon.
[points to Cedric]
Bob: He's wearing the ribbon. We are all wearing the ribbon! So why aren't *you* going to wear the ribbon?
Cosmo Kramer: [yelling] This is America! I don't have to wear anything I don't wanna wear!
Cedric: What are we going to do with him?
Cosmo Kramer: Huh?
Bob: I guess we will just have to teach him to wear the ribbon!
[Kramer to escape up the fire escape, but is dragged down by the other AIDS walkers]
6
I won't purchase any "pink" merchandise - it trivializes a serious woman's health issue. The "pink" onslaught could well result in unintended consequences - that of making people pay Less attention. In actuality - heart disease is the top killer of women according to the CDC. While breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, lung cancer is the leading cancer killer. I don't see a "pink" campaign to educate women about heart disease and lung cancer. Ever since Komen commercialized breast cancer, all types of businesses have jumped on the band wagon, so to speak.
These businesses promoting "pink" merchandise would better serve woman to make donations to research that will help with treating and curing cancer and other life threatening diseases. Instead, they are using them to make money. I find it distrubing.
These businesses promoting "pink" merchandise would better serve woman to make donations to research that will help with treating and curing cancer and other life threatening diseases. Instead, they are using them to make money. I find it distrubing.
8
At last, some people of goodwill who have the temerity to voice what many people are thinking. Essentially, about the pink barrage, enough already! You'd have to be totally ignorant not to understand about pink everything raining awareness about breast cancer. It's become a cliche; one example being for sports teams in high school, college, youth organizations; it's almost de rigeur to have pink something on a regular basis. And I doubt if many of the participants have really become more aware of breast cancer at this point.
I know people who have died of breast cancer but I also know other people who have died of pancreatic cancer, and melanoma, and brain tumors and....
Let's stop making fund raising for fighting this awful cancer mundane.
I know people who have died of breast cancer but I also know other people who have died of pancreatic cancer, and melanoma, and brain tumors and....
Let's stop making fund raising for fighting this awful cancer mundane.
6
just think how much money the drug companies, one of the 3 branches of our financial interests government, would lose if a real cure were found. treating cancer is way too lucrative to make them very interested in ending the cash flow, no matter how much pink is splashed about. in this country, money is always the loudest voice.
3
Amen to the disenchantment.
Even my own GP has privately expressed that he gets dismayed when what he calls the "PinkMobiles" roll into town.
Even my own GP has privately expressed that he gets dismayed when what he calls the "PinkMobiles" roll into town.
6
Besides the good points raised by many writers here, there is one more reason for our cumulative dismay with pinkification: that is, sending the women's movement back 20 years by associating the color PINK with WOMEN. As in we're 'pretty, frilly, soft.'
What, pray tell, would be our color for testicular cancer?
What, pray tell, would be our color for testicular cancer?
4
Really? Back 20 years, huh? Nonsense.
Is there nothing out there, however trivial, that someone, somewhere these days just can't be outraged, dismayed, indignant, irked, annoyed and all the rest, and then expecting the rest of the world to immediately say sorry and change until the next complaint (of which one is assured these days). Good intentions mean nothing, but PC and symbolism trump it all for some.
Is there nothing out there, however trivial, that someone, somewhere these days just can't be outraged, dismayed, indignant, irked, annoyed and all the rest, and then expecting the rest of the world to immediately say sorry and change until the next complaint (of which one is assured these days). Good intentions mean nothing, but PC and symbolism trump it all for some.
My older sister had a recurrence of breast cancer and didn't even know the symptoms! For a year she had the symptom of a dimpled breast yet she naively ignored it and marched annually for the pink brigade, missing an early diagnosis because of breast cancer UNawareness. If she had only told me I would have informed her. I read everything and she buys pink! Get informed...get aware.
6
Instead of putting all that money into pink ribbons, lighting, wrist bands, balloons, paint and oh! the Marathons!! What a waste of time , money and effort. All the money could just be donated straight to research, education and cures for Breast Cancer instead. I find the idea of marathons especially galling. Why does one pay ( yes pay, not donate )money to run in a marathon in a pink t-shirt, disrupting traffic, the city officials expending real money to divert traffic, have security to protect the marathoners and keep cheering crowds at a distance, businesses losing income and making some really good people living around the route, inconvenienced and very irked. All that money could just be put into a Breast Cancer Fund which would be of REAL USE! But I guess, we will not part with our money unless our vanity is nurtured and proclaim our selflessness to a great cause!
7
When I saw frackers painting their drill bits pink, donating money and partnering with Komen, I lost all respect for this campaign.
18
In the 20 years since "pink" has been around, not much has gone forward, except a lot treatment that may not have been necessary. Nowadays, there are a lot of disillusioned women out there who say they are breast cancer "treatment" survivors.
But what do you expect? The whole "Pink" thing was started by a drug company specializing in cancer drugs. Talk about conflict of interest!
But what do you expect? The whole "Pink" thing was started by a drug company specializing in cancer drugs. Talk about conflict of interest!
7
How come no one is talking about the breast cancer virus?
Because no one has proven there is one.
1
Interesting read. I just learned a week ago that 100% of "Go Red for Women" paraphernalia proceeds go directly to the American Heart Association (AHA), and that that's likely the reason you see much less of their heart disease and stroke campaign products compared to pink ribbons. It was a conscious choice on their part, I'm sure, to which not all AHA supporters may agree, but reading this article makes me think maybe they're on the right track after all. Heart disease is the number 1 killer of women in the USA, and the AHA currently funds 2000 research scientists in the USA. Cardiovascular disease mortality was reduced by 31% from 2002 to 2012 probably in large part thanks to research funded by the AHA and NIH.
10
I do cancer research every day and I hate the ubiquitous pink nonsense. This onslaught is really just another marketing campaign, no different than Pepsi's or McDonald's. Instead of buying pink, I suggest donating to a reputable cancer charity, such as the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. You can check out how charities compare by visiting http://www.charitynavigator.org.
19
How about taking all the chemicals out of our environment? That would solve a lot of the need to find a cure.
Here in Marin County, which had the highest breast cancer rate in the US, the rates quickly dropped to average in a few years once the cause was discovered.... all that hormone replacement therapy that the doctors had prescribed.
Eliminate the low hanging causes (no pun intended)! The rates here dropped 30% in just a few years.
Here in Marin County, which had the highest breast cancer rate in the US, the rates quickly dropped to average in a few years once the cause was discovered.... all that hormone replacement therapy that the doctors had prescribed.
Eliminate the low hanging causes (no pun intended)! The rates here dropped 30% in just a few years.
13
As with many other social and environmental issues, it is far easier to replace the complexities of any issue with a purchase that signifies to the world that one is a wonderful, caring, and kind-hearted individual. These campaigns appeal to our love of superficiality and our bigger love of buying something. Like the woman in the temple in the Bible story who gave all her coins modestly and out of view, I believe it is much better to make your donation quietly directly to organizations that have an impact upon this or other issues, than to make a show of your concern. This is so much more true, when awareness, as other have pointed out, has reached saturation, and has become a marketing tool.
5
It seems to me someone chose to use romantic and mythic imagery to sell breast cancer awareness. The patients are survivors and heroes who have journeys instead of horrific sometimes disfiguring treatments. And tacked onto the imagery is the open hand -- give to help us help you.
Only, I do not think they have helped much. Not in the same way St. Jude in Memphis has helped cure childhood cancer.
My friends who have had breast cancer have resiliently faced radiation and chemotherapy with great resolve and a great deal of suffering. What they faced was never cast as the journey of the hero. It was of a woman losing her hair, being violently ill at times, and always in pain.
The suffering didn't redeem them. Science did.
Personally, I object to pinking up cancer. It doesn't deserve it.
We need to find ways to radiate it and stop playing cute with womens' lives.
Only, I do not think they have helped much. Not in the same way St. Jude in Memphis has helped cure childhood cancer.
My friends who have had breast cancer have resiliently faced radiation and chemotherapy with great resolve and a great deal of suffering. What they faced was never cast as the journey of the hero. It was of a woman losing her hair, being violently ill at times, and always in pain.
The suffering didn't redeem them. Science did.
Personally, I object to pinking up cancer. It doesn't deserve it.
We need to find ways to radiate it and stop playing cute with womens' lives.
5
I've always hated this stupid patronizing campaign. If these pink ribbon people really care about reducing breast cancer why don't they spread awareness about the correlation between birth control pill usage and the greater likelihood of developing breast cancer? Many women still are not aware of this unfortunate link.
6
Because there is no link.
posting as jroll:
Tru, you have never read the warnings on birth control pills or ERT prescriptions. You have never had breast cancer or an honest oncologist. I was told in one "second opinion clinic" that estrogen before the age of 25 was associated with an incredibly rise in the risk of breast cancer.
Tru, you have never read the warnings on birth control pills or ERT prescriptions. You have never had breast cancer or an honest oncologist. I was told in one "second opinion clinic" that estrogen before the age of 25 was associated with an incredibly rise in the risk of breast cancer.
Pink has overstayed its welcome. Time for a cure for breast (and all other) cancers.
6
More than a cure, we need prevention. And that means vetting any and all synthetic chemicals we introduce into our consumer product stream. It means cleaning up toxic waste cast into the environment by corporate and govenment (military, especially) greed and negligence. Yes, these environmental causes sometimes interact with some peoples' genes. They can't change their genes, but we can clean up the environment for everyone. Pinkification focuses on none of the important environmental causes of cancer, including breast cancer.
36
posting by jroll:
It also means talking honestly about the estrogen and the use of synthetic hormones. The tragedy is that birth control pills are one sure way that women can control our fertility and participate fully in the economic life of our nation. It is a bitter price.
It also means talking honestly about the estrogen and the use of synthetic hormones. The tragedy is that birth control pills are one sure way that women can control our fertility and participate fully in the economic life of our nation. It is a bitter price.
My daughter and I were both diagnosed with mammograms. If seeing pink reminds a few people to get screened, then it's worth it. All this pink anger is contrary and mean spirited. If it helped me, why should any one else begrudge me my cure? Certainly I object to popup charities or companies whose profits on pink don't go where the buyer assumes. But the foundations whose products do go toward support OR care OR research OR screening should be commended not disparaged. When you donate, choose wisely.
3
LorryB, the point is they are not spending the money ON a cure. They are using it for "awareness" which everyone already is aware of pretty much. If you see a doctor, they will advise you to be screened. What we need is RESEARCH and money to find a cure for this not very pink or very pretty disease. The objection is not to awareness. It is to not spending the dollars where they are truly needed. By the way, if you are stage one or more, you may or may not be cured. It can come back and it can become metastatic. So, the cure is where it is needed most!
2
Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in both men and women in the U.S. In 1987. In 2015 "Lung cancer accounts for about 27% of all cancer deaths and is by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women".
The hucksters are out there taking donations that provide them with year-around work--it's just a job ,like any other job, except that it involves a deadly disease.
I have supported a number of "conservation" organizations but after nearly 2 decades things don't seem to be improving--just the methods of fund-raising. I too am asking "where's the beef?" BTW, I actually survived lung cancer thanks to a great surgeon who as far as I know didn't receive one thin dime of "pink money".
Maybe a quick read of Paul Krugman's column in today's NYTimes will help settle the fact that hucksters are everywhere--not just in politics.
The hucksters are out there taking donations that provide them with year-around work--it's just a job ,like any other job, except that it involves a deadly disease.
I have supported a number of "conservation" organizations but after nearly 2 decades things don't seem to be improving--just the methods of fund-raising. I too am asking "where's the beef?" BTW, I actually survived lung cancer thanks to a great surgeon who as far as I know didn't receive one thin dime of "pink money".
Maybe a quick read of Paul Krugman's column in today's NYTimes will help settle the fact that hucksters are everywhere--not just in politics.
4
Just stop with the pink. Please. There's no need foir "awareness" anymore - that's done. And no, I won't buy your mascara 'cause it has a pink ribbon on it in October. In fact, I won't buy any product that does this. Using a disease to sell your product is repulsive.
13
The NFL is the single worst perpetrator of "pinkwashing" pandering. The incidence of prostate cancer is as high as that of breast cancer. However, men are less likely to go to the doctor for preventive screening. Men make up 60% of the NFL's viewership. Yet, not one second of air time has been paid to create awareness for men's health. Similar to its domestic violence awareness campaign, the NFL shamelessly parades survivors and women with breast cancer across their football fields during October. If organizations like the NFL were actually serious about helping to improve the health of our nation, they would cease these embarrassingly transparent attempts at attracting viewers/additional revenue and would focus on building and funding programs that actually do good.
2
When will we admit to ourselves that the reason breast cancer gets so much attention is because it involves a body part considered by most to be sexual. Lung cancer may kill more people but lungs are not sexy. Ditto the colon and the pancreas. We are fooling ourselves if we don't realize that part of the appeal to businesses that tout the pink stuff is the titillation that comes from the word breast. Pathetic? Yes. But sadly true.
16
Without resorting to Google, let's see how many people can answer some or even one of these questions:
1. What month is prostate cancer awareness month?
2. What color is the ribbon?
3. Where is the prostate
4.What does it do?
5. What are the recommended screening tests for the disease?
6. Can anyone name a single company that puts up (blank) ribbons during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month?
7. How many men are afflicted with prostate cancer per year? How many deaths per year are there?
Again, no Googling. FYI, my mother had aggressive breast cancer and was treated at an Ivy-league hospital. Her doctors were like Seal Team 6 and squashed the cancer like a bug. Ten years later, my father had aggressive prostate cancer, was treated at the same Ivy League hospital and his physicians were incompetent cretins. He beat the disease in spite of them, not because of them. Enjoy the quiz!
1. What month is prostate cancer awareness month?
2. What color is the ribbon?
3. Where is the prostate
4.What does it do?
5. What are the recommended screening tests for the disease?
6. Can anyone name a single company that puts up (blank) ribbons during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month?
7. How many men are afflicted with prostate cancer per year? How many deaths per year are there?
Again, no Googling. FYI, my mother had aggressive breast cancer and was treated at an Ivy-league hospital. Her doctors were like Seal Team 6 and squashed the cancer like a bug. Ten years later, my father had aggressive prostate cancer, was treated at the same Ivy League hospital and his physicians were incompetent cretins. He beat the disease in spite of them, not because of them. Enjoy the quiz!
2
My mom, a triathlete and Pilates instructor-in-training, died of colon cancer at 51. No one spends money or energy on "save the anus" campaigns - thank goodness, frankly. Breasts' outsize value in American culture allows us to unite and feel good supporting vague awareness work without the decidedly personal and messy nature of cancer invading our fantasy. No different than the fantasy in adult videos separating us from the predatory realities of sex work. Why does the US only rally around health, I wonder, when pleasantly-colored products dangle before our eyes?
4
Right, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation withdrew funding to Planned Parenthood where women with limited resources go for services the Komen charity supposedly provides. This article fails to mention this very important part of the Pink story or how much the upper echelons at Komen are paid.
And shouldn't Komen's teaming up with gun manufacturers be mentioned? Get your own assault rifle with a pink stock or hand gun with pink grips.
And shouldn't Komen's teaming up with gun manufacturers be mentioned? Get your own assault rifle with a pink stock or hand gun with pink grips.
13
I am a breast cancer surgeon, trained at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. I've been in practice for 20 years and have had the privilege of caring for more than 6000 patients. In 2007, I discovered the existence of a breast cancer virus and have spent the past 8 years researching the history of this "murder suspect". At this point, dozens of scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals now indicate that the human mammary tumor virus, and, perhaps, other viruses as well, are responsible for 40-94% of breast cancer. Today, we spend less that $100,000 a year supporting this research. That doesn't add up.
23
Wow! I want to learn more about this. Just diagnosed with invasive ductile cancer in Juky, 2015
posting as jroll:
Please give links and/or citations for your research and the peer reviewed articles. Should those of us who have had breast cancer be isolated? Should we not participate in support groups????
Please give links and/or citations for your research and the peer reviewed articles. Should those of us who have had breast cancer be isolated? Should we not participate in support groups????
Oh, you're right, It's wrong to bring this critical medical issue to light. What were we thinking?
- From a disgruntled socialist Democrat with more trivial issues to whine about.
- From a disgruntled socialist Democrat with more trivial issues to whine about.
1
Aesthetically, pink rarely matches with anything and sticks out like a sore thumb.
NFL uniforms with pink cleats? Just terrible looking.
I prefer the original peach theme.
NFL uniforms with pink cleats? Just terrible looking.
I prefer the original peach theme.
2
In 2012, my mom succumbed to breast cancer after many years. I asked her once about the pink stuff in October, what she thought of it, and she said "I can't get away from it." I think she was tired of seeing it and thinking about it.
8
And, for the love of God, please do not participate in a mass marketing campaign by putting on a pink tutu and walking for three days. I have endured the Avon Walk here in Chicago on the lakefront for about 10 years now. Masses of women and, increasingly, men, clogging the path leaving no room for the rest of us runners, bikers, etc. This group is a cult, pure and simple, complete with orders on the level of the Catholic Church...there's the Feel Your Boobies order, the Touch Your Tatas order, the Save The Girls order...you get the picture. Then there are grown men sporting lifelike female breasts. In any other context, this would be considered obscene. It's a spectacle more on par with Mardi Gras than a sincere effort to eradicate the suffering of the people who have this horrible disease. Further, I find it extremely difficult to believe that after marketing costs, logistical costs and goody bags, Avon or any other company is really handing over much of a percentage of the amount raised. If you truly want to help someone who has cancer, spend three days in service instead. Make meals, drive to doctor's appointments, provide childcare, cut lawns, plan a surprise spa day...all much more effective in improving the quality of life for cancer patients than participating in corporate-sponsored silliness.
10
Apparently endometriosis affects more women and is without significant effective treatments, but that involves a part of the female anatomy that people are less eager to think about.
5
In a world where even human beings are bought and sold as commodities, we should not be surprised that breast cancer "awareness" has been commodified and turned into little more than a marketing strategy. And blaming corporation X or Y for greed is missing the point: we have all tacitly sanctioned a world where the bottom line rules all, where profiting off of deadly diseases is not only accepted but encouraged.
5
I am a stage 3 breast cancer survivor and have the PTSD to show for it. If you haven't experienced a cancer diagnosis and the treatment that follows it I don't know if you can fully understand the emotional trauma that comes with it. When I was first diagnosed it was like there was a running background noise in my head all day long - CancerCancerCancerCancerIHAVECANCER. I had young children at the time and all I thought about was the very real possibility of them growing up without me.
After a few years that has subsided and I have gone back to having a fairly normal life. That is until I have any kind of ache or pain. Then the panic and fear comes right back - is it the cancer metastasizing?
For me the entire month of October has become a constant in your face reminder of that panic and fear. Seeing the stupid pink fountain at my workplace, going food shopping and seeing a display of pink yogurt, the pink commercials, the pink t-shirts. It's impossible to ignore.
I find it ironic that the pinkwashing campaign (which has become just a way for corporations to make money) traumatizes those of us who it's supposed to be helping. I would love nothing more than to never have to look at a pink ribbon again.
After a few years that has subsided and I have gone back to having a fairly normal life. That is until I have any kind of ache or pain. Then the panic and fear comes right back - is it the cancer metastasizing?
For me the entire month of October has become a constant in your face reminder of that panic and fear. Seeing the stupid pink fountain at my workplace, going food shopping and seeing a display of pink yogurt, the pink commercials, the pink t-shirts. It's impossible to ignore.
I find it ironic that the pinkwashing campaign (which has become just a way for corporations to make money) traumatizes those of us who it's supposed to be helping. I would love nothing more than to never have to look at a pink ribbon again.
71
I have a friend whose mother died from breast cancer. My friend is offended by the breast cancer 'survivor' label that is so frequently used. It seems to her to imply that her mother somehow failed by dying and not being 'strong enough' to survive. Obviously, this disease is a killer and doesn't discriminate - strong-willed people die just as frequently as survive.
I also note a comment here by someone who had 'survived' breast cancer herself and was upset by the label - must she define herself by a disease forever more? Most want to move on from disease as best they are able, not be reminded regularly.
I also note a comment here by someone who had 'survived' breast cancer herself and was upset by the label - must she define herself by a disease forever more? Most want to move on from disease as best they are able, not be reminded regularly.
9
Also, what sense does it make to call everyone and anyone who is diagnosed with breast cancer a "survivor" when a fair number of them will eventually die of the disease?
3
A more beneficial use for your $$$ would be to send them directly to the research arm of the major cancer hospitals in the USA. Anderson in Houston, Farber in Boston, Sloan in New York , Moffitt in Tampa.
4
The tyranny of the pink. Every fall we are overwhelmed with pink products. What is awareness going to do? Recently the ACS scaled back its recommendations for mammography and physical breast exams. The incidence of aggressive breast cancers has not changed since the 1970s. Mammography has not done anything to improve those statistics. Women are finding out about some of their cancers earlier than they used to but that doesn't change the survival rate. Women are just knowing they have cancer for a longer time. Many women are being treated unnecessarily which of course improves the "cure" rates. If a woman doesn't have cancer to begin with she shouldn't be counted as cured.
It is time for these ridiculous awareness campaigns with women walking their feet off and wearing pink to end. The money is being squandered. Any funds not being spent on research or patient care is a total waste. Everyone is jumping on the pink campaign to improve their sales or goodwill. It is time for less awareness and more funding.
All the "pink groups" should get together and pay for research which can help diagnoses the aggressive cancers before it is too late to treat them and define what lumps do not need treatment so women are not poisoned and mutilated unnecessarily. The odds are actually excellent that most women will not get breast cancer, even if they live to 100. For those who are unlucky, let us spend the money on research that can improve their odds.
It is time for these ridiculous awareness campaigns with women walking their feet off and wearing pink to end. The money is being squandered. Any funds not being spent on research or patient care is a total waste. Everyone is jumping on the pink campaign to improve their sales or goodwill. It is time for less awareness and more funding.
All the "pink groups" should get together and pay for research which can help diagnoses the aggressive cancers before it is too late to treat them and define what lumps do not need treatment so women are not poisoned and mutilated unnecessarily. The odds are actually excellent that most women will not get breast cancer, even if they live to 100. For those who are unlucky, let us spend the money on research that can improve their odds.
4
Heart disease kills many more women than do all cancers combined.
This pink business is just that: a business. Those benefitting financially will not go down without a fight.
This pink business is just that: a business. Those benefitting financially will not go down without a fight.
7
Even though the Think Pink campaign is for a disease, the approach shouldn't be any different from the development of a consumer or business product. The fundamental principles of marketing and promotion still apply. When you launch a new product, brand awareness is your number one objective; but awareness alone will not continue to garner results long term. Other marketing objectives have to be set, and new tactics implemented in order to grow your product. The fight against breast cancer has simply stayed too long in the introductory phase of a product and now needs to move on to the next phase.
2
Seems like a catch-22. You raise "pink" awareness to get people to give but money is wasted on "the pink." You scrap the pink and the awareness is not as great and people do not give as much? I have been going on the mistaken assumption that pink was good. I have had my actors during sketch comedy shows wear pink then make an announcement on why we did. I was hopeful someone went and got an exam as a result. I will not argue with anyone here. I believe maybe pink has been overdone and that is sad...
1
There's a terrific documentary film on this topic, Lea Pool's 2011 "Pink Ribbons, Inc."
http://firstrunfeatures.com/pinkribbonsinc/
http://firstrunfeatures.com/pinkribbonsinc/
2
Here is a very in depth article which mentions names of bogus charities and how they work:
http://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a6506/breast-cancer-business-sc...
People should think about how they want to allocate their charitable contributions. What is important to them and what is the best way to help. They should not react to appeals which give only instant gratification, and often, buyer's remorse.
We are bombarded by charity requests at supermarket checkouts, restaurant cashiers, in our mail, etc. Many of these are bogus. I have personally looked up organizations requesting money for veterans assistance, polio eradication (yes, really, and people put cash in the jar!), and breast cancer "awareness".
Here is a fun Breast Cancer website. No I. D. number, no specific recipients, no physical address, no officers or employees names.
http://pinkribbon.org/about/
Also, beware, some restaurants add small donations to tabs without asking. This happened to me at a Panera. I was lucky to find the added dollar when I was checking the items I was supposed to receive. When I mentioned it to the cashier who I had paid he pulled out a dollar and gave it to me instead of refunding it to my credit card.
http://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a6506/breast-cancer-business-sc...
People should think about how they want to allocate their charitable contributions. What is important to them and what is the best way to help. They should not react to appeals which give only instant gratification, and often, buyer's remorse.
We are bombarded by charity requests at supermarket checkouts, restaurant cashiers, in our mail, etc. Many of these are bogus. I have personally looked up organizations requesting money for veterans assistance, polio eradication (yes, really, and people put cash in the jar!), and breast cancer "awareness".
Here is a fun Breast Cancer website. No I. D. number, no specific recipients, no physical address, no officers or employees names.
http://pinkribbon.org/about/
Also, beware, some restaurants add small donations to tabs without asking. This happened to me at a Panera. I was lucky to find the added dollar when I was checking the items I was supposed to receive. When I mentioned it to the cashier who I had paid he pulled out a dollar and gave it to me instead of refunding it to my credit card.
3
In my opinion, the most insidious side effect of this whole despicable pinkwashing phenomenon is that it puts a pretty, happy, cheerful face on a disease that is killing about 40,000 women a year in the US alone. Showing up at some walkathon in a pink tutu, or ponying up for pink ribbons on your yogurt cup, in my opinion, is a slap in the face to women who are dying of metastatic breast cancer. Pinkwashing is also creating a false sense of hope among women, that “awareness” equals “avoidance of disease.” When my best friend was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, at least four well-meaning but idiotic friends told me, “oh but they caught it – that’s great!” These are people who have been pinkwashed into thinking that you get your mammogram and that’s pretty much the end of it. These are intelligent and educated people who just happen to have believed the false hype being fed to them by these pink ribbon toting organizations. As a consumer, I go out of my way to avoid products labeled with pink ribbons and will cheerfully pay more money for non-affiliated products and services if I have to.
12
Why would any student in their right mind want to become a cancer researcher? After four years of college and perhaps five years of grad school, you will land a job as a post doc. The job fetches an average salary of $45K. After factoring in the 60 hour work week that most labs mandate, this salary translates to $15 an hour. Perhaps the student is better off moving to Seattle to flip burgers - the pay is the same! Or take a different path and aim for Wall Street.
Billions of dollars are raised every year during October "Pinkification", yet not much is done to make the starting job in cancer research lucrative for the bright minds. Wonder how long basic cancer research will continue to be a labor of love.
Billions of dollars are raised every year during October "Pinkification", yet not much is done to make the starting job in cancer research lucrative for the bright minds. Wonder how long basic cancer research will continue to be a labor of love.
2
Although the Pink campaign has become a bit overbearing, I think it's important for several reasons.
One, and I think this is the most significant, is that it has made men much more aware of breast cancer and of other health problems unique to women. Men who worried that they may lose their macho image by wearing pink have instead become more appealing by showing that they care about the women in their lives.
Two, there are many people who need to be completely surrounded by something before they notice it.
Three, making people aware of something usually brings actions down the road. I believe there will be more calls for research and more money donated not only for breast cancer but for other currently underfunded research programs.
Four, I understand why some women are beginning to resent the Pink program, but to go after Pink is really not the issue. It's the merchandisers who make money from Pink and keep the profits. Their greed should be exposed and effort made to force them to donate a huge portion of their Pink profits to research as well as to awareness. And putting a cap on how much they will donate is just as bad. Keeping the rest of the money is unconscionable. The public which believes they're doing something worthwhile by buying Pink should know that they're simply donating money to the businesses that market Pink, not to the problem of breast cancer.
One, and I think this is the most significant, is that it has made men much more aware of breast cancer and of other health problems unique to women. Men who worried that they may lose their macho image by wearing pink have instead become more appealing by showing that they care about the women in their lives.
Two, there are many people who need to be completely surrounded by something before they notice it.
Three, making people aware of something usually brings actions down the road. I believe there will be more calls for research and more money donated not only for breast cancer but for other currently underfunded research programs.
Four, I understand why some women are beginning to resent the Pink program, but to go after Pink is really not the issue. It's the merchandisers who make money from Pink and keep the profits. Their greed should be exposed and effort made to force them to donate a huge portion of their Pink profits to research as well as to awareness. And putting a cap on how much they will donate is just as bad. Keeping the rest of the money is unconscionable. The public which believes they're doing something worthwhile by buying Pink should know that they're simply donating money to the businesses that market Pink, not to the problem of breast cancer.
2
To Leah: Why will men "lose their macho image" if they wear pink? What color is the right color for macho males? If a man doesn't feel like having a macho image, what color is OK for him?
What color is right for a women if she really, really hates pink? And what happens to her if she should wear the macho color, whatever that is?
How does wearing pink help a man show he cares about women? How does this make him more "appealing?" To whom?
What color is right for a women if she really, really hates pink? And what happens to her if she should wear the macho color, whatever that is?
How does wearing pink help a man show he cares about women? How does this make him more "appealing?" To whom?
A good idea has ended up as a giant marketing tool to promote corporate image.
4
My mother died from breast cancer, my wife too young from lung cancer, I survived colon cancer... there are a lot of cancers. This pink thing offends me...it seems more about marketing then good deed doing. Am I not great I wear a pink loin cloth, look ma pink car, hello pink ribbons. How about big banners Get Rid of Cancer.. Plus our society has too many bracelets, look at me I am wearing eight of them, and too many ribbons, a lot of touchy feel good noise, without results. Though I would like to see every congressmen and senator dressed in pink suits for a week...
2
Agree. I am a breast cancer survivor and resent the pinkification. Fighting breast cancer - or any cancer - is a very private struggle. To turn it into a party is offensive. More offensive is the token concern from people - football players wearing pink ribbons comes to mind - who jump on the tendy pink bandwagon.
And the emphasis on breasts has a sexual, titillating undercurrent. It is NOT about saving breasts. It is about saving LIVES.
And the emphasis on breasts has a sexual, titillating undercurrent. It is NOT about saving breasts. It is about saving LIVES.
53
I distinctly remember an interview with a leader of a breast cancer group in San Fransisco, who pointed out:
1. The purpose of the pink-ribbon merchandise is to (a) market to women, and (b) titillate men by talking about breasts. That's why breast cancer gets a lot more publicity than, say, colon cancer.
2. If run-walks could cure breast cancer, it would have been cured decades ago. Most of the money raised for run-walks goes to ... organizing run-walks.
3. "Awareness" is not the problem. You ask any woman in the country, they know full well about it. You ask any doctor in the country, they're going to talk to all their female patients about it. That means the time and money and resources going to "raising awareness" is a complete waste.
The real solution is concerted research spearheaded by a single organization not dedicated to profit or fundraising. The one that fits the bill most thoroughly would be the CDC. Since everybody in the country is likely to know at least one woman who has been through breast cancer, I suspect there would be a lot of public support for putting our tax dollars to work for that goal.
1. The purpose of the pink-ribbon merchandise is to (a) market to women, and (b) titillate men by talking about breasts. That's why breast cancer gets a lot more publicity than, say, colon cancer.
2. If run-walks could cure breast cancer, it would have been cured decades ago. Most of the money raised for run-walks goes to ... organizing run-walks.
3. "Awareness" is not the problem. You ask any woman in the country, they know full well about it. You ask any doctor in the country, they're going to talk to all their female patients about it. That means the time and money and resources going to "raising awareness" is a complete waste.
The real solution is concerted research spearheaded by a single organization not dedicated to profit or fundraising. The one that fits the bill most thoroughly would be the CDC. Since everybody in the country is likely to know at least one woman who has been through breast cancer, I suspect there would be a lot of public support for putting our tax dollars to work for that goal.
16
As a retired pathologist, I have diagnosed many cases of cancer from all different sites. Fortunately, in the US most cases of breast cancer are low stage and treatable. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html
Also in the US breast cancer is the number 2 cause of death in women: the number 1 cause is lung cancer which has little support either by the public or by Federal funding agencies.
There are many other cancers such as pancreas, esophagus, renal, soft tissue, etc. which can be aggressive and lethal. Few if any screening tests are available for these cancers, as many cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage.
But where are the ribbons for these? the balloons? the walkathons?
It's time to get rid of the pink ribbon or wear a rainbow ribbon for all cancers.
Also in the US breast cancer is the number 2 cause of death in women: the number 1 cause is lung cancer which has little support either by the public or by Federal funding agencies.
There are many other cancers such as pancreas, esophagus, renal, soft tissue, etc. which can be aggressive and lethal. Few if any screening tests are available for these cancers, as many cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage.
But where are the ribbons for these? the balloons? the walkathons?
It's time to get rid of the pink ribbon or wear a rainbow ribbon for all cancers.
108
When you say low stage and treatable I have to disagree. All cancer is treatable but the numbers for stage 4 metastatic disease have remained the same over the last several decades and women are being diagnosed younger and younger. Those with triple negative are often diagnosed at stage 3. I don't feel any better about number 1 or 2 when it comes to any cancer. Billions of dollars has been spent on research and after attending the ASCO meeting a few weeks ago with oncologists from all over the country, many still admitted they don't have answers. We need to have better accountability when it comes to where the research money goes and instead of rehashing the same issues we need to take the answers and move on. It is difficult because of how competitive research funding has become and need to bring doctors and scientists together to help make a difference.
This survivor of chordoma, a rare sarcoma, thanks you!
1
I was in medical training for ten years, well prior to the pink era, and there was plenty of awareness about breast cancer--the need for screening, early diagnosis, etc.
I join the 90% of the commenters who are dismayed by the crass, opportunistic commercialism of pink. Take the tens of millions spent on pink this year, and give that amount in 2016, without any pinking, directly to breast cancer research, and to breast cancer patients in financial distress due to their illness.
But what about the thousands of people making good to huge incomes from the pink industry. What about them? (They've had their moment of prosperity.)
I join the 90% of the commenters who are dismayed by the crass, opportunistic commercialism of pink. Take the tens of millions spent on pink this year, and give that amount in 2016, without any pinking, directly to breast cancer research, and to breast cancer patients in financial distress due to their illness.
But what about the thousands of people making good to huge incomes from the pink industry. What about them? (They've had their moment of prosperity.)
21
I have been "out" of pink for years when I felt the Komen foundation was a money making scam, as are the rest. Get with it folks, don't throw your money at scams.
26
My wife had a double mastectomy for breast cancer. She has also had ovarian cancer stage 3.5 TWICE! What she went through for the ovarian was horrendous. I am being treated for a rare and aggressive cancer of the head and neck. I've lost 80 lbs, can't taste or smell, am deaf in my right ear, half deaf in the left ear, and the vision in my left eye has been affected. Americans are the most gullible people in the world when it comes to fads. PINK is a fad-nothing more. Wear PINK to show what? That you care more than the other person who is suffering with any one of the hundreds of types of this emperor of all maladies? It's a money maker, and much of those millions are NOT going to cancer research but to organizers, fund raisers, and other administrative "hangers-on" who have found a good thing financially for themselves.
19
Delta dressed its flight attendants in pink but not its pilots? Because, of course, pilots are all men and flight attendants are all women? Talk about gender stereotyping.
9
Delta has women pilots. How much of the pilots' uniform would you like to see go pink?
1
Flight attendants can be male.
Of course pilots can be female and flight attendants can be male. That's the point.
It's a marketing stunt that took.
It has helped a lot of companies sell endless amounts of products, so long as they play on people's feelings on the matter.
And for this, those companies gratefully donate cents on the dollar.
Marketing at its best.
If those companies really cared, they would donate 100% of the profit they make selling stuff colored pink, to cancer treatment centers. But this will not happen.
It has helped a lot of companies sell endless amounts of products, so long as they play on people's feelings on the matter.
And for this, those companies gratefully donate cents on the dollar.
Marketing at its best.
If those companies really cared, they would donate 100% of the profit they make selling stuff colored pink, to cancer treatment centers. But this will not happen.
14
If only we could stop forcing folks to support and donate to the annual pink campaigns - wait - it is voluntary - if we want to support direct research we can?
How long has this freedom of choice scam been going on anyway?
How long has this freedom of choice scam been going on anyway?
3
Sorry, fighting breast cancer, or any other cancer for that matter, is not a sport that can be supported by showing team spirit. Cancer keeps playing dirty and it will take some brilliant insights by some brilliant people to score points against it. We don't know if these people are even born yet. In the mean time, we could spend all this junk money on people who are sick and on their families.
8
The danger of buying a product that "donates a portion of proceeds to charity X" (they never say what portion) or donating a buck to charity x at the grocery store cash register is that it lulls people into thinking they've "done their part." If you truly believe that people who can afford it have an obligation to give to worthy charities, you have not done your part by buying a box of pasta with a pink ribbon on it or giving a small donation at the register to the cause of the month. Instead, every month or so, pick a charity that's important to you, whether it's breast cancer research, poverty, environmental charities, animal causes, or something else you believe in. Research your charity and make sure they make good use of your donation (you never get these details when you're guilted into giving at the register--ask for more information about the charity, wait for the blank stare). Once you've found a good charity, give as generously as you can afford. I always give at least $100, but if you can't afford that, be proud to give what you can. Repeat in a month or two. Keep track of these donations. At tax time, ask yourself if you can afford to give more next year. If so, do it. Challenge yourself to actually make a difference instead of just giving in to a guilt trip.
By the way, when stores and other businesses collect small donations from customers, they make the donations in their name--not yours--and reap the customer goodwill and tax credits.
By the way, when stores and other businesses collect small donations from customers, they make the donations in their name--not yours--and reap the customer goodwill and tax credits.
9
The Cancer Industrial Complex's pink ribbon campaign does not help women -- it harms them. The overuse of screening mammograms does not improve survival. It leads to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of breast cancer at a great cost to women's physical, emotional and financial health.
You would have to screen 1,000 forty year olds every year for ten years in order to "save" one woman's life. You are ten times more likely to be diagnosed and treated for a breast cancer you did not actually have than to benefit from screening in the absence of symptoms.
The annual corporate-fueled breast cancer hysteria is a leading reason why the US has the world's highest health care costs but the very worst healthcare outcomes in the developed world. That is the only awareness we need to spread.
You would have to screen 1,000 forty year olds every year for ten years in order to "save" one woman's life. You are ten times more likely to be diagnosed and treated for a breast cancer you did not actually have than to benefit from screening in the absence of symptoms.
The annual corporate-fueled breast cancer hysteria is a leading reason why the US has the world's highest health care costs but the very worst healthcare outcomes in the developed world. That is the only awareness we need to spread.
13
What incredible stress we Americans invite into our lives, letting ourselves be told to buy all this pink stuff, Halloween junk, Mother's Day fluff, Valentine's Day junk, sports-themed trash.
Let the people and events and values of your own life guide what you buy. Buy a hat because you like it or want it or need it, not because some marketing weenie says you're a bad person if you don't.
Don't excuse yourself as a grouch or a grinch either. No one cares, except the product manager with the quota to meet.
Let the people and events and values of your own life guide what you buy. Buy a hat because you like it or want it or need it, not because some marketing weenie says you're a bad person if you don't.
Don't excuse yourself as a grouch or a grinch either. No one cares, except the product manager with the quota to meet.
7
Americans love slogans, groupthink, moralizing, blowing money and profiteering, so this was inevitable.
5
The "cure" for all cancers is going to be found in a research lab in a research university funded by the NIH/NCI.
That's where a larger portion of our tax dollars should be directed and invested.
Without consistent funding to the NIH, we'll see fewer and fewer of our brightest young minds choose a career in science -- and all the richness of innovation that research and development has brought to this country.
That's where a larger portion of our tax dollars should be directed and invested.
Without consistent funding to the NIH, we'll see fewer and fewer of our brightest young minds choose a career in science -- and all the richness of innovation that research and development has brought to this country.
7
I've never liked pink, not now, now when I was a little girl, not ever - and I have come to detest its use on any item, product or cause to do with girls and women. The pink-everything-under-the-sun October marketing campaign - for that is all it is - does nothing to advance the science and treatment of breast or other cancers.
It is a gesture only, a sop thrown to half of the country to make us forget the myriad ways in which women are regarded and treated as lesser beings. I will have none of it.
It is a gesture only, a sop thrown to half of the country to make us forget the myriad ways in which women are regarded and treated as lesser beings. I will have none of it.
8
Charity Navigator does not rate the Susan G Komen for the Cure well. Better to donate to National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. or Living Beyond Breast Cancer. Make your money count breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women.
8
The only good things about Pinkwashing and Movember are the conversations, like this, that they inspire - especially among young children who may be unaware of cancer.
A more effective message would be to label the many things that CAUSE CANCER with bright pink! Maybe then we'd get somewhere with prevention.
A more effective message would be to label the many things that CAUSE CANCER with bright pink! Maybe then we'd get somewhere with prevention.
3
Someone should follow that $60 million the cancer society made and summarize where it really went.
5
Every time I see this pink in/on anything I assume Susan G. Koman is involved and I immediately ignore it. Further, If the people running the charities cannot see the absurdity of football players, oil rig drill bits, handcuffs, etc., in "breast cancer" pink, then they should be removed.
12
Men get prostate cancer in approximately the same numbers as women get breast cancer. The amount of money spent on prostate cancer is a fraction of that spent on breast cancer. Why is that? Can you imagine the outcry if the numbers were reversed? We would hear how men get the monetary advantage etc. Why don't we see prostate awareness during sporting events? If pink represents breast cancer awareness, what color represent prostate cancer awareness?
7
I'm a so called breast cancer survivor, though at 3 years post treatment, who really knows. And I now have a far worse cancer,mpossibly brought on by my radiation treatments...esophageal, and I never smoked. I am sick of pink. Our high school team had a pink night to raise awareness. I was half inclined to peel off my shirt and make them really aware of breast cancer! The lemonade on Delta is the last straw. Put the money to research.
9
When I told my radiologist that I could "taste" the radiation in my mouth, her response was, oh no the beams are only focused on your breast.
Yeah, light bends, and beams can be bouncing all over. As I write this, I had my last treatment called a boost, this past Monday. I still have tingling on the tip of my tongue, a metallic after taste in my mouth, stabbing pains in my radiated boob, a "frog" in my throat, and a "fogginess" in my chest. I also felt it in my gums. And at one point had loose bowels. TG I was home at the time.
I did have a bout of what felt like the flu during, so I don't know if the "frog" and "fogginess" are due to that. But the mouth tingling I never had and it started after the very first dose. BTW on the next check-in visit, she did say, well, some woman do complain about mouth issues.
So now I'm waiting to see if post radiation, I end up with sarcoma in the breast, lungs, or throat or heart problems as a tiny slice of my heart couldn't be avoided.
Yeah, light bends, and beams can be bouncing all over. As I write this, I had my last treatment called a boost, this past Monday. I still have tingling on the tip of my tongue, a metallic after taste in my mouth, stabbing pains in my radiated boob, a "frog" in my throat, and a "fogginess" in my chest. I also felt it in my gums. And at one point had loose bowels. TG I was home at the time.
I did have a bout of what felt like the flu during, so I don't know if the "frog" and "fogginess" are due to that. But the mouth tingling I never had and it started after the very first dose. BTW on the next check-in visit, she did say, well, some woman do complain about mouth issues.
So now I'm waiting to see if post radiation, I end up with sarcoma in the breast, lungs, or throat or heart problems as a tiny slice of my heart couldn't be avoided.
2
I had breast cancer, and right from the beginning, I have found this pink business offensive. I agree with the comments that
6
The pink movement suppresses prevention. Breast Cancer is in most cases a PREVENTABLE disease. Only 5% of US women diagnosed have a known genetic mutation. 95% of all US women diagnosed HAVE NO KNOWN FAMILY HISTORY of breast cancer. Women think they are safe because they have no family history - they are not safe. Every woman must work to limit risk.
TOP RISK FACTORS THAT YOU CAN REVERSE
1. Being overweight
2. Eating unhealthy food
3. Lack of Exercise
4. Drinking Alcohol
5. Smoking
6. Hormone replacement therapy
http://www.breastcancer.org/risk/factors/slideshows/can-control?slide=6
The pink paradigm supports ignoring risk factors, indulging in whatever, and trying to detect the inevitable cancer early. Trust me, you will not enjoy the surgery and treatments that follow early detection. Wouldn't you prefer to AVOID it all together? Understanding this, and applying this to your life is AWARENESS.
TOP RISK FACTORS THAT YOU CAN REVERSE
1. Being overweight
2. Eating unhealthy food
3. Lack of Exercise
4. Drinking Alcohol
5. Smoking
6. Hormone replacement therapy
http://www.breastcancer.org/risk/factors/slideshows/can-control?slide=6
The pink paradigm supports ignoring risk factors, indulging in whatever, and trying to detect the inevitable cancer early. Trust me, you will not enjoy the surgery and treatments that follow early detection. Wouldn't you prefer to AVOID it all together? Understanding this, and applying this to your life is AWARENESS.
5
About time for an article like this. Lighting a bridge or painting a showroom pink delivers no funds or money to breast cancer awareness, treatment or research. Breast cancer isn't even the leading cause of death among women (heart disease is check CDC 2013 data). Why aren't we dedicating the same concern for the leading cause of death among women? Maybe because men prefer to wear I love boobies decals/pins rather than I love hearts decal/pins? I have relatives who are survivors of breast cancer. Wearing pink shoes didn't cure my relatives breast cancer. I wish we could eliminate breast cancers and other cancers as well as the major cause of death among women - heart disease, as well as other disease. Maybe breast cancer was once ignored or overlooked by many in society and deserved more attention (and funding). Regarding getting attention those days are long gone - the pink campaign is overwhelming and now overshadows more serious concerns. Funding for research? There can always be more for that - time to shift from awareness to solutions.
6
Amen. Put an end to the countless, pinks, yellow ribbons, American Flags sticking out of windows on cars, etc.
One can't go to a grocery store, retail store, fast food joint, car dealership, bank or other places without the store's owner, primarily a corporation wanting you to donate $$ to "their" foundation for some cause. So let's see, who is shilling for the credit for a donation, getting the tax deduct and acting like they are soooo supportive of the cause? A bunch of hooey. If they want to donate, then step up and do it and quit taking the credit as they throw a ball for charity using your $$.
Another way that corporations are buying influence in this country using their "private foundation". Most of the time they are throwing parties so their execs can dress up in tuxedos and gowns and eat an expensive catered dinner. They gouge you with product price fixing, have lousy service, monopolist practices and then they turn around and dole your $$ out pretending they are so benevolent.
When will America ever wake up?????? They are now exerting control over society through their made up philanthropic activities.
The worst, grocery stores wanting you to buy sacks of groceries to feed the poor. And guess who is making a profit on the groceries?
One can't go to a grocery store, retail store, fast food joint, car dealership, bank or other places without the store's owner, primarily a corporation wanting you to donate $$ to "their" foundation for some cause. So let's see, who is shilling for the credit for a donation, getting the tax deduct and acting like they are soooo supportive of the cause? A bunch of hooey. If they want to donate, then step up and do it and quit taking the credit as they throw a ball for charity using your $$.
Another way that corporations are buying influence in this country using their "private foundation". Most of the time they are throwing parties so their execs can dress up in tuxedos and gowns and eat an expensive catered dinner. They gouge you with product price fixing, have lousy service, monopolist practices and then they turn around and dole your $$ out pretending they are so benevolent.
When will America ever wake up?????? They are now exerting control over society through their made up philanthropic activities.
The worst, grocery stores wanting you to buy sacks of groceries to feed the poor. And guess who is making a profit on the groceries?
11
You said it. See another of today's article on the corporatization of medicine, coming from another angle - the story on Theranos.
Soon, they will run out of colors and we can give this all a rest...
Or maybe not. Money-making gambits can be further compartmentalized into Turquoise, Puce, Marroon, Slate Blue, Rose, Cobalt, and more.
Or maybe not. Money-making gambits can be further compartmentalized into Turquoise, Puce, Marroon, Slate Blue, Rose, Cobalt, and more.
3
It's wrong to put down people who are showing support the only way they know how and trying to raise awareness. If they go pink, what's the big deal? The Komen foundation cast a pall over the pink campaign and that is what's appalling and unfortunate.
1
The big deal is they could be far more helpful doing other efforts. Take that $20 for a pink blouse and donate it to research, for example.
4
How can people think wearing pink or buying pink stuff is "showing support" for cancer sufferers?
What kind of support is that? What good does that do?
How stupid can people be?
What kind of support is that? What good does that do?
How stupid can people be?
3
This campaign treats breast cancer like it is an ideology or philosophy possessed with a rational and logical plan to work its terrible ways in peoples' bodies.
So, if we adopt the old strategies of protest (marches, rallies, speeches) we can change/persuade/legislate the problem away.
Nonsense, of course.
Cancer is what cancer is, for all of us everywhere in our bodies. Prioritizing one form of cancer over another, and to the absurd extent of the pink campaign, smacks of weak willed, easily manipulated persons being victimized twice.
So, if we adopt the old strategies of protest (marches, rallies, speeches) we can change/persuade/legislate the problem away.
Nonsense, of course.
Cancer is what cancer is, for all of us everywhere in our bodies. Prioritizing one form of cancer over another, and to the absurd extent of the pink campaign, smacks of weak willed, easily manipulated persons being victimized twice.
2
There is too much pink these days, on all levels. Even Depends are pink for women and blue for men - do the makers of Depends really think that people who need their product can't simply read? I have watched the amount of commercial pink grow in every crack and crevice available - the result is the opposite of gender equity or gender respect. Reducing an illness to a color associated with one gender diminishes the humanity of all and results in stereotyping - no one's experience can be reduced to pink. Believe it or not many of us do not have breast cancer as their primary fear - some of us have other cancers, or heart disease or something else entirely. Breast cancer advocates have been remarkably successful, alas, at inflicting pink on the world - the unintended result has been to lock girls and women into pink prisons, and to lock men out. Just stop it already.
1
There is nothing more status-enhancing than to be perceived as altruistic. So faux altruism, i.e., superficially selfless deeds done for the selfish purpose of status enhancement is ubiquitous. Like getting on the pink bandwagon in October. It costs little to change some accouterment of life to pink and proclaim to the world that you, too, are altruistically concerned with the health of women's breasts.
But it's all for show. By now, there can't be a soul who is not aware that women's breasts sometimes turn cancerous, sometimes in a deadly way. Because the awareness campaign is so ubiquitous it is really not all that effective anymore to jump on the bandwagon as a means of status enhancement. Instead, it is done today as a means of preventing status impairment.
This article indicates this loss of pinkification as a status-enhancement technique, and for some the cheap displays are actually considered to be insensitive. How it took so long for at least some people to see through all the pageantry is hard to fathom. The ones complaining of the faux altruism now seek a deeper sense of concern, from awareness of detection and treatment options to awareness of preventive measures, along with the pursuit of a cure.
My bet is that it won't be another five or so years until displaying pink in October is verboten for the sophisticates who want people to know they really get it, supplanted by some other cultural totem that shows they are in the know. What a circus.
But it's all for show. By now, there can't be a soul who is not aware that women's breasts sometimes turn cancerous, sometimes in a deadly way. Because the awareness campaign is so ubiquitous it is really not all that effective anymore to jump on the bandwagon as a means of status enhancement. Instead, it is done today as a means of preventing status impairment.
This article indicates this loss of pinkification as a status-enhancement technique, and for some the cheap displays are actually considered to be insensitive. How it took so long for at least some people to see through all the pageantry is hard to fathom. The ones complaining of the faux altruism now seek a deeper sense of concern, from awareness of detection and treatment options to awareness of preventive measures, along with the pursuit of a cure.
My bet is that it won't be another five or so years until displaying pink in October is verboten for the sophisticates who want people to know they really get it, supplanted by some other cultural totem that shows they are in the know. What a circus.
2
Pink? Never did warm to that color. Now, blue... So many lovely shades of blue.
Time to focus on what CAN be done. Refugees! Infrastructure. Living wage. Parental leave. Etc.
Time to focus on what CAN be done. Refugees! Infrastructure. Living wage. Parental leave. Etc.
2
As a breast cancer survivor, I cringe every time I see pink. Just another charity scam, of which there are surely many.
6
I find it frustrating that in our commercialized society, so much research funding depends on the media attention that can be garnered. Like the ice bucket challenge of a couple of years ago and so much focus on kids with autism. Autism is a serious problem and a challenge for families, but so is Downs Syndrome and severe cerebral palsy. Do we "go blue" for prostate month? How about a colonoscopy month? And as an individual, how do I decide which charity to donate to? The one with the ribbons affixed to the coolest products? The one that can be promoted with a photo on Facebook of me and my friends? The one my favorite celeb supports? Or the one for the illness my family member did from? None of these is likely to put my money where there is the most need. Wouldn't it be better to have a big pool of money being distributed where and when can do the most good?
2
Finally!
1
Pink handcuffs are cynical, insulting and sadistic.
8
Every group tries to become an institution. Needs a "brand" to distinguish itself. Wants to perpetuate itself!
Enough already! Too many institutions vying for our attention. Trying to convince us their perpetuation is more important than ... Well whatever...
People first! Don't buy the propaganda institutions try to sell!
Enough already! Too many institutions vying for our attention. Trying to convince us their perpetuation is more important than ... Well whatever...
People first! Don't buy the propaganda institutions try to sell!
5
posted by jroll:
I hate this exploitation of a disease. I guess this is the "free market" at work. And the message to women: Wear Pink. Don't Think. And run in circles"
I have had breast cancer.
I hate this exploitation of a disease. I guess this is the "free market" at work. And the message to women: Wear Pink. Don't Think. And run in circles"
I have had breast cancer.
5
Agree 100%.
-Spouse of a breast cancer patient
-Spouse of a breast cancer patient
2
It is certainly worth noting that the Susan G. Koman Foundation gets middling ratings as a charity, and American Cancer Society is even worse in terms of money spent on admin and fundraising. Americans have been hoodwinked by these slick campaigns; meanwhile, execs for the charities are living large.
8
Putting on the pink ribbon or whatever is easy, it's like popping a pill. Changing lifestyles to stop being a couch potato, eat healthy, etc. that takes real work. Breast cancer, increased with obesity, has to it a large lifestyle component. At a recent pink walk event my husband worked at, the amount of junk food was staggering. You're all PC if you go pink.
3
I'll be sure to tell my yoga instructor, vegan, ran 3 miles every morning aunt that her aggressive breast cancer was caused by her 'lifestyle components'.
Get real. Junk food doesn't cause cancer. Nor does obesity. There are plenty of obese people wandering around, most of them cancer-free. And there are plenty of slim, trim, and organic 24/7 people who get aggressive cancers.
I get that you want to believe eating right will somehow spare you. And it may indeed spare you a heart attack or stroke (though I know a few healthy people who've had those, too.) But the truth is that a cancer diagnosis is just bad luck. That's it. Bad luck. So eat a slice of cake and relax. Your genetics decided your future before you were even conscious of your existence.
Get real. Junk food doesn't cause cancer. Nor does obesity. There are plenty of obese people wandering around, most of them cancer-free. And there are plenty of slim, trim, and organic 24/7 people who get aggressive cancers.
I get that you want to believe eating right will somehow spare you. And it may indeed spare you a heart attack or stroke (though I know a few healthy people who've had those, too.) But the truth is that a cancer diagnosis is just bad luck. That's it. Bad luck. So eat a slice of cake and relax. Your genetics decided your future before you were even conscious of your existence.
3
OK, NY Times, it is time for one of your investigative journalists to do an article on this silly campaign and the other so-called charities, from a financial perspective. I am talking about tax-exempt businesses pretending to be charities. I am talking about all of the charitable tax deductions, so the wealthy can buy designer gowns and expensive jewelry and go to a gala with their buddies who tell them about more ways to cheat the government on taxes. Then show how much of that money goes for valid research that makes a difference. PLEASE.
4
For several years, I've discussed this "pink" thing with family and others.
Much money donated in good faith has been wasted.
Susan B. Komen's sister probably started with good intentions, but I believe it became an ego trip.
A few years ago, a family member, who practiced after registering in the annual Boston walk/run event, couldn't come up with the total $15,000 in pledges demanded by the Susan B. Komen Foundation. She had entered in support of another family member with another form of cancer - but no money; no way.
Finally, someone who couldn't afford it felt so bad she came up with the needed amount.
Pink everywhere cost so much that could have gone to fight disease.
Many other examples of waste.
Much money donated in good faith has been wasted.
Susan B. Komen's sister probably started with good intentions, but I believe it became an ego trip.
A few years ago, a family member, who practiced after registering in the annual Boston walk/run event, couldn't come up with the total $15,000 in pledges demanded by the Susan B. Komen Foundation. She had entered in support of another family member with another form of cancer - but no money; no way.
Finally, someone who couldn't afford it felt so bad she came up with the needed amount.
Pink everywhere cost so much that could have gone to fight disease.
Many other examples of waste.
8
I have metastatic breast cancer and I am tired of the circus- like atmosphere that takes place in October. Bra parties, save the ta-tas tshirts, pink wigs and pink feather boas etc. We need action not awareness- everyone is aware by now unless you are living under a rock. We need more dollars for research for a cure, not more pink ribbons and balloons.
The circus of Pink October takes away from the seriousness of the disease. I have dear friends who have died of breast cancer and believe me they did not have on a feather boa when then passed away. Instead they had breathing tubes and oxygen.
We need research. If you are generous enough to donate, please consider donating to research organizations.
The circus of Pink October takes away from the seriousness of the disease. I have dear friends who have died of breast cancer and believe me they did not have on a feather boa when then passed away. Instead they had breathing tubes and oxygen.
We need research. If you are generous enough to donate, please consider donating to research organizations.
10
I had breast cancer in 1982, the first I knew that men could have it. My wife and kids and I are very anti-pink campaign because it ignores the 1% of victims who are men. Men should know about this -- the fact that they usually do not causes them to delay treatment until it often is too late. I was aware of the danger signals because my mother died of it
6
Lung cancer kills nearly twice as many women as breast cancer, but where are the grey ribbons, assuming that's the color?
Pancreatic cancer kills about as many in the U.S. as breast cancer--men and women--but when was the last time you were urged to become "aware" of your pancreas, unless you're a diabetic?
I'll never forget, years ago, being in the breast clinic at a hospital waiting to be called in for an ultrasound to follow up on a dodgy mammogram. The room was full of anxious women awaiting the same procedure, and with each of them, an equally anxious man. A few days later, I was in the same hospital in the neurology department, waiting to discuss results from MRIs of my brain. There, too, were several women, also awaiting a verdict on whether they had a lifelong, incurable, progressive, disabling neurological condition. Escorts? None. We were all alone. That spoke volumes to me about a little-discussed aspect of this nearly cartoonish focus on breast cancer--that it gets such play in large part because of our society's obsession with this particular secondary sex characteristic. Would that brains had the same allure.
Pancreatic cancer kills about as many in the U.S. as breast cancer--men and women--but when was the last time you were urged to become "aware" of your pancreas, unless you're a diabetic?
I'll never forget, years ago, being in the breast clinic at a hospital waiting to be called in for an ultrasound to follow up on a dodgy mammogram. The room was full of anxious women awaiting the same procedure, and with each of them, an equally anxious man. A few days later, I was in the same hospital in the neurology department, waiting to discuss results from MRIs of my brain. There, too, were several women, also awaiting a verdict on whether they had a lifelong, incurable, progressive, disabling neurological condition. Escorts? None. We were all alone. That spoke volumes to me about a little-discussed aspect of this nearly cartoonish focus on breast cancer--that it gets such play in large part because of our society's obsession with this particular secondary sex characteristic. Would that brains had the same allure.
8
Thank you for this article. Everywhere I turn i see pink, so much so it has become redundant to the point of meaninglessness. Also, there are other causes out there. My mother died from kidney failure, which affects both men and women. The focus on breast cancer with it's emphasis on women and pink ignores the fact that men also get breast cancer.
3
Pinkification is a rip-off, pure and simple. We don't need awareness, we need results. I never buy anything pink - companies are wasting our time and taking our money. A good friend lost a sister to breast cancer 5-6 years ago and introduced me to Breast Cancer Action, which has been debunking pinkification for years. Unfortunately BCA still doesn't have enough traction to penetrate the Komen nonsense. That the White House went pink seems out of character for the usually savvy Obama administration.
9
As bad as breast cancer is, far more women die of heart disease. According to CDC in 2009, more than 290,000 died of heart disease--one in four female deaths. This year it is expected that some 40,000 women will die of breast cancer.
3
What exactly are we supposed to be aware of anyway? That breast cancer exists and people die from it? Risk factors? Products with pink ribbons on them that we're supposed to feel good about buying? I'm pretty sure it's the last one.
5
Men have a higher percentage of developing and dying from cancer than women (American Cancer Society website) and yet there is no hoopla for men. How about a non-gender specific campaign for healthy living every year that covers children , women and men! Obesity should be our number one priority.
3
I lost my mother three years ago to ovarian cancer . She was diagnosed at stage four . She had all the classic signs of ovarian cancer that were just seen as post menopausal symptoms. She was told to exercise more and lose weight. My mother was far from overweight . She endured 2 years of horrific chemo and drastic surgery. She would get so mad when all the focus was on breast cancer and no focus on all women's cancers. Perhaps if that were the case she would still be here to see her much loved granddaughter play her last soccer game as a senior - or even to see her play in her pink socks on breast cancer awareness night.
6
Barbara Ehrenreich does a brilliant assessment of this Pinkification of breast cancer in her book 'Bright Sided'. Enough already.
Our local elementary school asked young kids to wear pink to school earlier this month, even the boys. How could we ask children be a part of this too? And what if one or some of the students were coping with the loss of a relative due to cancer. End it. All of it.
Our local elementary school asked young kids to wear pink to school earlier this month, even the boys. How could we ask children be a part of this too? And what if one or some of the students were coping with the loss of a relative due to cancer. End it. All of it.
9
Wow. Somebody else has finally said what I've wanted to for a long time. You see, I'm a man and arguing against "pink warriors" would seemingly come off as insensitive. When I watch the NFL and see pink draped players I wonder who benefits more: the NFL's image or actual cancer researchers. It seems that companies cleanse themselves of past wrongs by taking the pink bath.
8
It's good to see some comments - even though they're a tiny minority - finally saying that (a) a hope for a cure is not realistic in the near future; (b) you may be able to reduce risk with healthy eating, etc., but you can't 100% prevent cancer, or almost anything else; and (c) early detection doesn't always save lives and may inflate survival numbers artificially.
Instead of painting things pink and buying ribbons, use the funds for helping people with *any* cancer get better quality of life: personal services, air travel upgrades, private rooms, home assistance, gift certificates, massage and more. And when medical services can't do any more, let people die with dignity, in peace, instead of lingering in untreatable pain for months and years.
Instead of painting things pink and buying ribbons, use the funds for helping people with *any* cancer get better quality of life: personal services, air travel upgrades, private rooms, home assistance, gift certificates, massage and more. And when medical services can't do any more, let people die with dignity, in peace, instead of lingering in untreatable pain for months and years.
7
I'm a cancer survivor with one of the two genes that predisposes me to breast cancer, and I am deeply offended by the pinkification of the world and the smarmy commercial response to one of our major killers. Let it also be remembered that men, often with the BRACA 2 gene, also get breast cancer as did my uncle. One of the reasons that men remain unconscious of the possibility of getting the disease is that it's defined as a woman's disease; when a man does get the disease, there is the social mortification of having a disease that's been pinkified to the max.
10
One of the great ironies of the breast cancer awareness campaign is that breast cancer is not even the leading cause of cancer deaths amongst women. That distinction falls to lung cancer, and by a considerable margin. So what is being gained by the pinkification of practically everything? I should think that amongst individuals, it is a sense of self-gratification, and amongst commercial enterprises and do-good charities, it is largely self-promotion.
10
Reminds me of how Kramer was beaten up by thugs for not wearing the "AIDS ribbon." He was actually doing something, not just lying about doing something while actually lining his own pockets.
2
More women die of heart disease than any other illness but you'd never know it.
3
Billions of dollars for this campaign? If that money had been given to real cancer research instead, we might be further down the road to effective treatment. Excessive (and that varies hugely) gamma radiation exposure is also a known carcinogen. The beneficiaries of mammograms include hospitals and insurance companies, and they seem to be the parties most in opposition to the American Cancer Society's new advisory on testing.
It would seem the pink campaign has become profitable for many, but not necessarily for cancer researchers, who are in most need of those funds.
It would seem the pink campaign has become profitable for many, but not necessarily for cancer researchers, who are in most need of those funds.
4
At worst the pink thing is harmless. Its not like we have to choose between wearing pink or funding breast cancer research. Raising awareness helps even if it is not the complete answer.
3
As a cancer survivor myself (and not of breast cancer), I am tired of the pink campaign. If we were really serious about cancer, we would properly fund the NIH, for all cancer research. Some of the deadliest, lung, brain and pancreatic, have little funding and mortality rates that are equal to or exceed breast cancer. My husband died of the latter at the age of 51, four weeks from diagnosis. Yet little is done. Breast cancer mortality rates have remained flat though there are increases in the numbers of early stage diagnoses. But what is not known is how many of these early stage cancers, stage 0, would become invasive breast cancer. Doctors can not yet differentiate the two. That is where we need research. And more money is needed to treat late stage disease and triple negative, which overwhelmingly affects African Americans. Companies need to open their wallets if they really want to do something meaningful. What they're currently doing, plain and simple, is selling products.
72
Great post, thank you...
1
You are absolutely correct about this and I agree whole-heartedly. It could seriously be classified as fraud in the case of Dick's Sporting Goods and other companies that make a profit on selling pink products with no proceeds going to breast cancer research or treatments.
2
Hooray! We are finally coming to our senses on this "pink" silliness. Awareness is not the main issue. Also, you manifest and attract what you promote.
21
This isn't going to be popular, but I hope it resonates. My son has osteosarcoma, it has taken a leg and continues, as cancer and the aggressive treatments required to oppose it, to threaten his life. His is a rare cancer that affects primarily children and young adults and hasn't been adopted by any football team or sporting goods store. It's hard to drive to chemotherapy past a pink bus, pink everything. Any cancer is a terrible blow to the person who has it and the people who love that person. Could we just fight cancer--with research for a cure and for less damaging treatments? All cancers?
63
Personally, I believe cancer could be cured, but there's more profit in survivorship. More and more "treatment," more and more diagnoses, more and more doctors' appointments, more and more "research," squeezing every penny out of victims and their families, and keeping them just barely alive, with unrealistic expectations. I am disgusted with all those who only pretend to care, and who just want to make a profit.
1
I couldn't agree with you more, and I'm a breast cancer surgeon! It's is so unfair that the commercial interests have run amok with "pink" so that it seems that there is no other cancer in the world but this. Of course, that's an exaggeration, but so is the crass marketing of breast cancer. After spending the past 8 years researching the history of tumor viruses, especially the human breast cancer virus, I am convinced that tumor virus research, and preventive cancer vaccines similar to the one we have against HPV/cervical cancer, are where research should be going. "No matter how far down the wrong road you've gone (in search of a cure), turn back."
2
As with all things ACS, "pinkification" has become an end unto itself. We're all sick of it, since it means nothing substantive. ACS spends the bulk of it's donations on running the "business" while begging for more, and upper management makes a hell of a nice income. Operating expenses are out of this world. How do I know? I worked for them for 3 1/2 years. Send your charity dollars elsewhere, to an organization that is actually interested in doing the most good for the most people.
47
Everything in our country is a business now, first and foremost. Medicine, education, war, churches, charity--that, too. If there's a kingdom of Mammon in this world, it's here. All for gain, to all our loss.
42
I've had breast cancer spreading locally since 2010, and this year it metastasized. This year I had brain surgery in breast cancer awareness month, because there was a tumor found in my brain. This was in addition to cancer spreading to my bones and liver earlier this year. In spite of having health insurance, my husband and I have been financially ruined by medical costs. The money being raised by all the "pink sellers" doesn't seem to help actual cancer patients. I'm fortunate to come from a loving, supportive family, since this country seems to be so centered around getting money rather than helping people. I do want to say that the cancer center treating me now is amazingly supportive.
53
I agree the pink stuff is annoying, especially when I am watching football...but it doesn't matter either way. I hate to break it to everyone, but there is NO cure for cancer. I had testicular cancer last year (specifically mine was called a Mediastinal Seminoma, so the tumor lodges in your chest and just grows), all they can do is pump you full of chemo and hope the tumor reduces enough to go away. It was a miserable experience, but I am lucky having survived it. But there is no cure, the other patients in the clinic with me who had Lymphoma or Breast cancer were getting the same exact treatment I was....the only key is does your tumor actually dissipate with the chemo treatment or does it not. I hate to be a downer, but there really isn't much else you can do. I hope from all this research money there is at least a more tolerable way to administer chemo so you are not completely debilitated and don't have so many awful side effects.
19
There's much more than what you experienced. There are many many kinds of cancers. And many different treatments besides chemo. You're simply mistaken.
1
According to the NCI, tumor viruses are involved in ~20% of all cancers. We know that Hepatitis B and C cause liver cancer, and we have an effective vaccine that prevents it. We know that HPV causes cervical cancer, and we have an effective vaccine that prevents it. (There is a vaccine that prevents leukemia and lymphoma in cats: why not in humans?) Scientists are now 85% certain that a virus is involved in 40-94% of breast cancer - the human mammary tumor virus. How much money is spent funding THAT research? Less than $100,000 per year: you can't even graph that; I've tried. The cure for many cancers lies in preventive vaccines, but there's little money to be made in that. Call to action: spread the word about tumor viruses and whenever possible fund organizations that support this research.
My understanding is that Komen sells the pink ribbon logo without caring much what the purchaser does. Like the heart healthy logo for food. This is from press reports, and I hVe no real knowledge of what happens.
I am no fan of Barbie/PeptoBismal pink and have avoided products like that.
When I got cancer, not breast cancer, I found that there was pretty much no research on or advised treatment for mine. I found the drum beat for pink annoying, but from reading the comments, maybe if I had a "popular" cancer it would be more annoying.
I wish luck to all with the experience, and rapid loss of business from all who see such matters as marketing opportunities.
I am no fan of Barbie/PeptoBismal pink and have avoided products like that.
When I got cancer, not breast cancer, I found that there was pretty much no research on or advised treatment for mine. I found the drum beat for pink annoying, but from reading the comments, maybe if I had a "popular" cancer it would be more annoying.
I wish luck to all with the experience, and rapid loss of business from all who see such matters as marketing opportunities.
10
Would someone do us all a favor and find out what Komen's logo sells for? Last I heard, from a woman who wanted to use it to sell t-shirts at her shop to support breast cancer research, was $35,000. I created a breast cancer foundation to find the cause of breast cancer and to use that knowledge to prevent the disease (Breast Health & Healing Foundation, 501c3). You can use my logo for free!
3
I was driving down the Edens Expressway outside Chicago last weekend to be greeted with a bright pink illuminated sign posted by a construction company that blared "We Love Boobies," with the ubiquitous pink ribbon substituted for the letter o. Really. I am sure that this company feels it is "raising awareness" but hasn't given a dime to any breast cancer charity. They are cheapening and sexualizing a very serious disease. I think efforts like this, combined with questionable cause marketing efforts are why breast cancer awareness month has become so unappealing.
38
I don't think we'll be seeing the next obvious one to raise awareness of testicular cancer. "We love..."
3
Geez. Disgusting.
The whole campaign has always been, in great measure, about the marketing of breasts. The objectification of women.
Well, some of us are getting wise.
The whole campaign has always been, in great measure, about the marketing of breasts. The objectification of women.
Well, some of us are getting wise.
1
Metastatic breast cancer kills 40,000 people in this country every year. The aspect of the "awareness" campaigns that bothers me most is its stress on the message that early detection and treatment equals cure. This is not so for 20 to 30% of people with early-stage breast cancer who develop metastatic cancer months, years or even decades later despite doing "all the right things." When I was 38, I was diagnosed with Stage I, node-negative cancer when I was 38, had a mastectomy and reconstruction. I was then diagnosed with a second primary in the remaining breast when I was 48, had a mastectomy and reconstruction, and was considered "cured."
Four years ago, at 64, I was diagnosed with Stage IV (incurable) breast cancer metastasized to my lungs. Thanks to a good oncologist, I have defied the odds and am still here. Like other Stage IV patients, I will be in treatment for the rest of my life, following the mantra of "Scan, Treat, Repeat," and dreading the inevitable progression which forces a change in treatment. I look healthy and am functioning, if not entirely at my my previous level. Very few people know I have cancer and I intend to keep it that way. I don't want anyone to treat me differently. The thought that some might believe I developed metastases through negligence makes me furious beyond measure. The "pinking of October" adds insult to injury to those of us living with Stage IV breast cancer. It's time to focus on research.
Four years ago, at 64, I was diagnosed with Stage IV (incurable) breast cancer metastasized to my lungs. Thanks to a good oncologist, I have defied the odds and am still here. Like other Stage IV patients, I will be in treatment for the rest of my life, following the mantra of "Scan, Treat, Repeat," and dreading the inevitable progression which forces a change in treatment. I look healthy and am functioning, if not entirely at my my previous level. Very few people know I have cancer and I intend to keep it that way. I don't want anyone to treat me differently. The thought that some might believe I developed metastases through negligence makes me furious beyond measure. The "pinking of October" adds insult to injury to those of us living with Stage IV breast cancer. It's time to focus on research.
26
I'm so sorry. Although you don't need or want anyone's pity, everyone should know your story. That's "awareness" that is very useful.
1
It's the cancer, not you, that's to blame for recurrence and metastasis. Early diagnosis only works for those to whom it applies: not everyone! We have a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. Because HPV causes ~65% of head and neck cancer, it prevents those cancers too. We have a vaccine that prevents the most common tumor in the world - liver cancer. Why, we even have a vaccine that prevents leukemia and lymphoma in cats! How about we turn our attention to the ~20% of human cancers caused by tumor viruses and develop vaccine against all of them. First at bat: the human mammary tumor virus, thought to be involved in 40-94% of breast cancer. What we need is to complete the research on this virus and develop a preventive breast cancer vaccine and put an end to pink.
Those who might believe you developed metastases through negligence need to be told to sit down and shut up. I am fed up with people who have no medical training, and certainly none on the topic of cancer, opine about your personal "culpability" in your disease, based on their reading of a few articles or seeing a couple reports on popular media. If you're overweight, it's all your fault. Did you ever eat the "wrong" foods? Your fault. Wait until after age thirty to have kids? Your fault. Didn't breast feed them "long enough"? Your fault. Not keeping a cheerful enough attitude while ill and scared? Your fault if you have a recurrence, or G*d forbid, it metastasizes.
These "awareness" campaigns seem to promulgate these attitudes along with cheap self-congratulation. "Awareness" of what to do or not do to avoid breast cancer is pointless to those like Tina and others in that 20%-30%. My mother did absolutely everything "right" and did nothing "wrong" and wound up dying of metastasized breast cancer at age 64, but when I mention it to others, they quiz me about her lifestyle.
How about ditching "awareness" and funding treatment and research for people who need it?
These "awareness" campaigns seem to promulgate these attitudes along with cheap self-congratulation. "Awareness" of what to do or not do to avoid breast cancer is pointless to those like Tina and others in that 20%-30%. My mother did absolutely everything "right" and did nothing "wrong" and wound up dying of metastasized breast cancer at age 64, but when I mention it to others, they quiz me about her lifestyle.
How about ditching "awareness" and funding treatment and research for people who need it?
2
I not only find all this pink a turn off, it ignores the fact that breast cancer is not the only cancer that affects women. A significant number of women have endometrial, ovarian and cervical cancer.
I will never forget the weekend a month after my hysterectomy when I got repeated phone calls from some group raising money for breast cancer that ignored my polite requests to be removed from their call list. When I finally told a caller that I had endometrial cancer, she fell silent and hung up without even apologizing for their insensitive treatment.
Forget the pink and focus on good medical treatment and research. And when sound medical research says fewer mammograms and less aggressive treatments in some cases -- pay attention and consider the evidence instead of the inevitable knee-jerk reaction. And consider that some of this money might be better spent on research for other forms of cancer.
I will never forget the weekend a month after my hysterectomy when I got repeated phone calls from some group raising money for breast cancer that ignored my polite requests to be removed from their call list. When I finally told a caller that I had endometrial cancer, she fell silent and hung up without even apologizing for their insensitive treatment.
Forget the pink and focus on good medical treatment and research. And when sound medical research says fewer mammograms and less aggressive treatments in some cases -- pay attention and consider the evidence instead of the inevitable knee-jerk reaction. And consider that some of this money might be better spent on research for other forms of cancer.
23
Professor Vincent Tuohy of the Cleveland Clinic developed a preventive breast cancer vaccine that is 100% effective in preventing breast cancer in mice. Komen refused to fund a study to test its safety for use in women, especially women with triple-negative breast cancer which seemed the best target for Tuohy's vaccine. The NCI wasn't interested either. Finally, venture capital moved in (Shield Biotech) and partnered with the Cleveland Clinic. We now hold our breath to see if the FDA will allow a phase I study to proceed. The race for a cure need its disease: a vaccine would end all that. Case Study #1 for how the profit-driven healthcare system perpetuates disease, even cancer, despite innovations that might end it altogether. Now, I understand very well (I trained at Memorial Sloan-Kettering) that not everything that works in mice will work in humans. But everything that works in humans first worked in mice, and we should definitely get behind this vaccine and the research on tumor viruses that underpin it.
3
It's become ridiculous. And it has led to other ridiculous campaigns like the one where you don't wear a bra for a day, also to "raise awareness." How does that work exactly? We can't see women's bras anyway. Droopy breasts is somehow going to make me aware of breast cancer now? Enough already.
16
america is a land of little substance and all show
18
Even the giant garbage truck that picked up my trash this morning is painted bright pink with pink ribbons, for God's sake. Fully agree, it's time to ditch this annoying "education campaign." Donate to research centers, directly, and let's take back the month of October.
While we're at it, how about the media cease running their perennial breast-cancer article illustration of a bare woman's back at the mammogram machine? This has always struck me as prurient/pandering/exploitative. Why is it you never see photos of a man's rear or front end, alluringly draped, illustrating articles on men's cancers? Readers, you get three guesses to deduce the reason.
While we're at it, how about the media cease running their perennial breast-cancer article illustration of a bare woman's back at the mammogram machine? This has always struck me as prurient/pandering/exploitative. Why is it you never see photos of a man's rear or front end, alluringly draped, illustrating articles on men's cancers? Readers, you get three guesses to deduce the reason.
28
Portable toilets have been painted pink. I rather think that's an apt representation of just how far that breast cancer business has descended.
3
The foundations - and I don't care if they have the name "Clinton" or "Komen" or "Smith and Jones" in the title - are tax dodges for the wealthy, period. These foundations spend about 90% of their intake (and often more like 95%) on salaries, advertising and flying their executives around to conferences. And what's worse, of the money they do give out, most of it is grants to - you guessed it - other equally worthless foundations, who in turn spend 95% of it on salaries, overhead, advertising etc. Often it's the same pile of money going around in a big circle. If you really want to do something (and are not inclined to go to medical school or get a PhD), go to the local hospital and ask the head doctor or nurse, what I can do to help? But buying a pink Mets jersey will accomplish nothing.
25
And what you also find out, having direct knowledge, these private foundations are vehicles for the wealthy to keep their loser kid (who don't work) on a payroll, just like the other scam, family limited partnerships. All tax dodges.
1
The whole pink thing -- in fact most of these issue-ribbon campaigns -- are a way for people who really don't have the time or energy to do anything genuinely charitable to demonstrate to others that they're "doing their part." It's like so much of modern Christianity: all about the outward shows of piety, very little about living by the teachings of Christ. (And in both cases, the truly cynical are making money off the deal.)
30
I would support the pink if 1) it actually raised funding and got results to cure cancer and 2) the pink products were non-toxic and not contributing to breast and other forms of cancer. Walking a few miles, and putting a pink trash can out does not cure cancer. Education, support for education, research, support for research, defense of scientists against intrusive, crazy congressmen, that can help cure cancer. Seriously if people were educated, and willing to listen to scientists, maybe we wouldn't have pink labels on water bottles, which are transmitting endocrine disrupters to the consumer, or the proliferation of toxic pink plastic trash. It's a campaign that regardless of its intent serves principally to remove people from the reality of cancer research. Pink is not a cure. Science is.
28
My wife and I are both cancer survivors, and frankly, we are getting tired of being "pinked".
32
Someone should investigate Kommen and their marketing partners to find out what percentage of the sale of pink products goes to cancer causes. I suspect it's a fraction of a percentage of 1%. It's always stated in mysterious small percent. Kommen has a huge state-of-the-art high-rise office in Dallas. What pays for that?
37
And the Komen executives rake in the dollars in high salaries. I refuse to support that organization.
Who pays for that? Why Big Pharma and the Koch Brothers.
Thank you for saying this. My Mom was badgered by "Pink Ladies" at the hospital every time she went for chemo. It was horrible for her. I finally put a stop to it by complaining to her oncologist and nurse. Many patients were relieved that were not being bothered anymore. My Mom has been gone for five years and I still remember how upsetting this was for her. Kommen is the only one benefiting from this.
3
The pink thing? Isn't that about the BRANDING of breast cancer? What I object to is the hot pink invading the NFL, as if breast cancer and football have anything to do with each other? Call me superficial, but am I allowed to watch a football game with contemplating the women lost to breast canxer? What have these publicity stunts accomplished? Have less women died because of heightened awareness? Personally, don't even know if I ever had a mammogram. Maybe once and it was years ago.
16
[[The Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel wearing a pink towel before a game to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month.]]
It should read "The Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel wearing a pink towel because it is mandated during Breast Cancer Awareness Month."
It should read "The Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel wearing a pink towel because it is mandated during Breast Cancer Awareness Month."
2
Perhaps no one told you but men can get breast cancer.
Going 'pink' like many other social issues, is just a response to our larger societal laziness to take any kind of meaningful action when it comes to diseases, charitable giving and so on. Wearing a ribbon or buying a colored themed item allows us to project a self satisfying image to others that we support a cause...but I would venture to say the vast majority of people do little beyond that. Similarly, companies that sell pink products or run pink promotions are only doing so to fulfill our shallow need to project that image.
At the end of the day we all get to pat ourselves on the back and move on to the next one.
At the end of the day we all get to pat ourselves on the back and move on to the next one.
6
For Pete's sake the George Washington Bridge is pink for a whole month. This follows a whole month of blue for "some other awareness month" - I think it is Autism. Have we gone mad?
12
"Awareness" is still important, but not awareness of the disease itself, but awareness of the concrete steps individuals can take to make a difference: ways to donate that will have an actual impact; ways in which people can lobby their representatives in government to help; steps they can take on the neighborhood level to support friends or relatives with cancer; how to keep up with current screening recommendations; etc.
People want to do good. If they're willing to wear pink, they're also probably willing to make one phone call to a congressman or send $10 to a charity, or carpool a sick neighbor's kids from soccer every week. They just need to know where to start. And they're probably willing to work more broadly against *all* cancer, not just those types of cancer that are for some reason most in the public discourse.
People want to do good. If they're willing to wear pink, they're also probably willing to make one phone call to a congressman or send $10 to a charity, or carpool a sick neighbor's kids from soccer every week. They just need to know where to start. And they're probably willing to work more broadly against *all* cancer, not just those types of cancer that are for some reason most in the public discourse.
5
Awareness is great. Commercialization is exploitative for profit. And let's not forget this would have gone anywhere until the AIDS red ribbon came on the scene
5
I've always thought that making everything pink was ridiculous and did little to help people who had cancer, but had I posted a comment saying that 5 years ago, I would have been pilloried.
15
All symbolism and no action does little to solve the real problem of breast cancer. We have a long way to go to problem resolution with commitment to research. As of now the only concrete action in October remains the issuance of pink slips by companies - nothing to do with BC.
6
I am tired of the "pink" association with women. It's just a gimmick to make money and keep women in a mold. Get rid of it. This money isn't going toward research for cures.
9
Your short history of "why pink" didn't go back far enough.
In the dark Dark Ages when everyone believed in demons, devils, incubuses and succubi and the very air was thick with spirits who hungered to whisk away one's soul, the Church came up with a sure-fire way to protect infant boys.
The infant boys would be clothed in the cool, celestial color of light blue. Everyone knew that the soul-suckers hated the power of the holy colors.
Infant girls, on the other hand, were dressed in colors that would attract the denizens of the dark, warm inviting hues of pinks, for it was far more preferable for an inferior female to get her soul sucked away than a precious boy.
I've never worn pink, never will. I truly can't.
In the dark Dark Ages when everyone believed in demons, devils, incubuses and succubi and the very air was thick with spirits who hungered to whisk away one's soul, the Church came up with a sure-fire way to protect infant boys.
The infant boys would be clothed in the cool, celestial color of light blue. Everyone knew that the soul-suckers hated the power of the holy colors.
Infant girls, on the other hand, were dressed in colors that would attract the denizens of the dark, warm inviting hues of pinks, for it was far more preferable for an inferior female to get her soul sucked away than a precious boy.
I've never worn pink, never will. I truly can't.
7
That's not what I understand. I understand that it used to be the other way around--blue was considered a delicate color for "fragile" little girls, whereas pink was diluted red, a strong, powerful color, thus for boys. And at some point it got flipped around.
"Awareness" used to be one of the responsibilities of journalists as a public service, a nice bit of altruism in what could perhaps bring a positive light to an otherwise sad story.
I don't need my airline, drug store or cell phone company trying to make me think they're somehow good, in fact it makes them seem engaged in very desperate marketing, not charity.
I'm all for individuals giving to charities that fund research, but awareness is not the same thing. The US has brought this upon ourselves, when marketing and finance are much more favored career paths than science, medicine, or engineering.
I don't need my airline, drug store or cell phone company trying to make me think they're somehow good, in fact it makes them seem engaged in very desperate marketing, not charity.
I'm all for individuals giving to charities that fund research, but awareness is not the same thing. The US has brought this upon ourselves, when marketing and finance are much more favored career paths than science, medicine, or engineering.
9
I have had two mastectomies and I hate pink garbage(my skin is notpink!) I hate why me? Why not me!. I hate trying to make little girls out of strong women! I have daughters and grand daughters and hope for more research on the CAUSE as well as the CURE!
3
Cancer has to do with pathological cell growth and triggered genes. Any real cure would have to shut down the process genetically. It is unlikely that any treatment in the foreseeable future can do this, at least without effecting all sorts of other aspics of human biology. As it is, the best one can do is to live healthily to reduce the risk of triggering and, if triggered, treat it as a chronic condition with, w hop, a good prognosis for life span. The idea of a cure is corporate hogwash -- corporate 'goodwill'.
5
I hate the color pink and I certainly don't need to see it at every turn. More to the point, I can't seem to get away from this massive corporate marketing campaign. I don't like feeling pressured or guilted into participating in something and so my money and credit cards stay in my wallet.
9
I also have always objected to this pink silliness. Women need to be responsible for their own health and keep themselves informed and get the correct timely tests. Pink ribbons imply that we are all too big of a bunch of nitwitted bimbos to manage that on our own and have to see a pink ribbon at a store to remember that we have breasts. Please.......
13
October has always been my "cringeification" month. Call it sour grapes, especially because I now have metastatic BC, my thoughts have always turned to those women without the support system I had. Twelve years ago during chemo, double mastectomy, reconstruction etc, all I could think about was the single mom in my shoes- working two jobs, struggling for child care, no support system, bad health insurance and the stress all of that brings, on top of the countless doctor appts, and side effects. Next time you reach to buy a pink product, stop yourself. Instead, call a local Oncology office in your area. Find out from them if they have any patients in need of child care, a home cooked meal, help paying a co-pay, or someone to sit with them during treatment. Go right to the heart of the issue, you won't leave wondering if your money did any good.
58
I just lost another patient two weeks ago to breast cancer. She was 33, a single mother of one daughter who is 13. The father is no where to be seen. Another orphan, the second in my practice this past year. It breaks my heart to know that there appears to be a virus at the heart of the disease and that so little money and attention is given to support it (i.e., the human mammary tumor virus). Lives lost needlessly for want of proper attention to the cause of breast cancer to support the profit-driven, crass race for an elusive cure: God help us all, but especially the children.
1
You can abuse anything including motherhood, apple pie and pink campaigns.
Charity groups because of their causes are the easiest to be abused.
I try and give directly, ie bring food and supplies to dog shelters, walk a destitute person into a food store and buy food for them directly.
If you are gonna money to a charity group, investigate them on line, make sure they are squeaky clean, that they did not even get a parking ticket, if not don't give.
Charity groups because of their causes are the easiest to be abused.
I try and give directly, ie bring food and supplies to dog shelters, walk a destitute person into a food store and buy food for them directly.
If you are gonna money to a charity group, investigate them on line, make sure they are squeaky clean, that they did not even get a parking ticket, if not don't give.
8
The article is spot on - the whole issue is trivialized by the ubiquity of its symbols.
14
What bothers me the most is the complete emphasis on detection and treatment. There is almost no emphasis on prevention. We are forced to believe that there is absolutely nothing we can do as individuals to prevent breast cancer. We are led to believe that it is all genetic and out of our hands, that we are victims of this disease. If this was true, then why us it that breast cancer rates are lower in Japan than in America. Why are breast cancer rates lower in Africans than in African Americans. Why are breast cancer deaths unchanged regardless of whatever screening timetable is used for mammograms by various countries?
21
Lower rates in Japan and Africa can be due to gene pool as well as environment, i.e., heredity and luck are huge factors.
2
If Pink continues, I want to see them focus as much on prevention as on cure. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
How to prevent breast cancer, at least in part of the population?
Keep your weight down; eat little, and focus on vegetables; avoid alcohol as much as possible; exercise for 20 minutes each day; and, importantly, if you give birth, breastfeed.
People constantly debate breastfeeding, is it essential for babies, yada yada, but they rarely talk about how crucial it is for the future health of the mother.
How to prevent breast cancer, at least in part of the population?
Keep your weight down; eat little, and focus on vegetables; avoid alcohol as much as possible; exercise for 20 minutes each day; and, importantly, if you give birth, breastfeed.
People constantly debate breastfeeding, is it essential for babies, yada yada, but they rarely talk about how crucial it is for the future health of the mother.
5
The measures you suggest may reduce risk but I'd want to see the original data. You can follow all these measures and still get breast cancer.
2
Unfortunately, by saying this, you are taking on a "blame the victim" stance without even realizing it. Many women have developed breast cancer who were already doing all of the things you mention. It is a crap shoot frankly. Only about 10-15% of BC is genetic and what is more, lots of women who took great care of themselves, did not drink, exercised daily, breast fed and ate well STILL find themselves dying of this disease. We need a cure. Not a blame.
2
This is a great example of marketing and people massaging their own egos (I bought something pink that I was going to buy anyway, or worse I bought some pink schlock to feel good about myself). Sad commentary on humans! I think there are many people who genuinely would like to help, but far too many are too afraid to do something that really helps a sufferer (drive someone to doctor's appointment, do their laundry) because they come face-to-face with too much reality.
10
This "campaign" gives telemarketers the opportunity to harass folks on the phone. This month I have received countless phone calls on "behalf" one breast cancer organization or another. The names of some I can't find on Charity Navigator and when I do find one, little of the money goes to research or assistance to those afflicted. The downside, as many find out, once you give, your name, address, and phone number are sold. You end up on mailing and call lists generating more phone calls and mailings. Requests to respected organizations to respect my privacy and not to provide my address and phone go ignored. As a result I no longer give to organizations unless I can give cash.
10
Yes, and when you're signing for a credit card purchase, up pops a question asking if you want to donate an extra dollar to breast cancer awareness. Other charities do the same thing. Years ago there was a charity that automatically deducted a monthly "contribution" from your paycheck. Employees who objected to this were demonized. Yet there was absolutely no paper trail, no reckoning, no proof that your money went anywhere except into the pockets of this particular organization. The really sad thing about this is the predatory aspect of taking advantage of people's good intentions and desire to help.
2
Disgusting shade of pink!
6
As a survivor I hate the pink everywhere. It's a chance for corporations to engage in self-promotion and gimmicks. As Breast Cancer Action has long said, "Think before you pink!"
21
All over my neighborhood, we now have these really ugly, bright pink trash containers! Can you believe that? The trash collector is sharing his fee with ACS? Good Grief!!!
1
I can't stomach the hypocrisy of the NFL with its endemic culture of rape and disrespect having anything to do with what is largely a women's issue.
15
My thoughts exactly when I saw the pink junk in the games last weekend.
1
It's just another way for the "celebrities", sports figures ((male), and business to cash in on a fading fad. Money needs to go to research and generally people facing cancer only want some others to know about it. Like all people who are ill, they want to be like everyone else and not singled out. It was a dumb idea and continues to be.
10
Finally a breath of fresh air into this burdensome, feel-good, corporatizing of cancer. I think a closer look at how much money is being skimmed off the top is definitely in order. No corporation in this country is going to be so cooperative with their "pinkness" unless there's something quite substantial in it for them as well. Breast cancer advocates need to get out in the streets the way the Act Up people did. Being pretty and nice and walking, running, whatever..."for the cause" doesn't cure cancer. It just adds to the cancer money machine. You don't need the police if you don't have criminals and you don't need cancer awareness campaigns ($$$$$) unless you have cancer. There's a huge profit motive in continuing this insanity.
20
Having witnessed the medical treatment(s) and death of breast cancer in my mother, sister, cousin, beloved friend and self, I detest the pink ribbons. It has escalated to the point of obsurdity. October brings up "post traumatic breast cancer disorder" in many survivors and families .
19
My wife has a rare form of colorectal cancer and she's at stage 4. She had an anaphylactic reaction to the only FDA-approved drug for her cancer, Cisplatin, leaving us to search for clinical trials or pay for very expensive off-label use of immunotherapies that cost upwards of $150,000 per year. We don't for a minute begrudge fundraising for breast cancer or any other type of cancer. All types of cancer sucks, plain and simple. However, every time we see a football player wearing pink cleats, a baseball player using a pink bat, or a car dealer draping a showroom in pink, we wonder if that money could be better spent finding a cure, or helping us cover the costs for my wife's cancer. Less commercialization and more research and assistance with cancer-related expenses would be very much appreciated.
223
When I was a little kid people talked about all the diseases that used to kill their kids and were now either cured or prevented. I haven't heard in decades about new cures for major disease. It seems like all the news is about cocktails of expensive drugs which will lead to a longer life but not to a cure. Is it just more profitable to keep people alive but on drugs for the rest of their lives than it is to cure? Profits before people is an old saying, but it seems to fit in the research and creation of new drugs.
9
The Red Ribbon has been a powerful symbol in the fight against AIDS, and Pink for breast cancer. Charities make a big mistake when they allow the "commercialization" of the issue by companies such as Dicks and Delta who use the "awareness campaign" to promote themselves, providing little or no money for the charities who provide care and treatment. It cheapens the cause and dilutes the effectiveness of the charities' overall fundraising efforts.
63
What did the military do when they endorsed the use of yellow ribbon for Support Our Troops in order to disguise their ill begotten war. People could smugly feel good that they were patriotic & "aware" simply by displaying a bumper sticker without taking the time to wake up & realize that the Iraq War was fought for Oil & to enrich military sub contractors like ex-CEO of Halliburton, Vice President Cheney in which he owned controlling stock of the company. Simply putting a yellow stick was enough to feel good without caring about whether US troops were blown up by IEDs or came home without any arms or legs, with PTSD, without any job prospects or waiting for months to visit a doctor at the VA. The use of color coded symbols can be used as a marketing gimmick to fool the public into believing that the government or corporations are actually using public donations, charity or taxpayers dollars to address important issues instead of lining their own pockets for their insatiable greed & to hypnotize the public into believing feel good fairy tales instead of cold hard facts.
1
it's called cause-related marketing, it's been around for longer than the ribbon campaigns and it's pretty discouraging. Personally, I'd rather pay lower prices to the company and donate myself, than have me applaud the firm for something that is almost but not quite corporate social responsibility.
2
Anything that draws attention to the women's health causes is beneficial even if it means color coding or sex role stereotyping since people are programmed like Pavlov's dog to respond to simple color, scent or word cues. Advertisers do this all the time by naming gum "Big Red" or sweet caffeinated drinks "Red Bull" or "Monster". The reality outside the service hype industry mass advertising & packaging of products, is that women receive short shrift when it comes to NIH funding on women's health issues. There is a distinct discrepancy on research funding spent on studying diseases unique to women vs. men with women's issues amounting to only 13.5% of the total research budget. The recent change to postpone insurance coverage of annual mammogram for women is a public outrage considering this disease strikes 1 in 8 women sometime in their lifetime. If a type of cancer devastated men on a similar scale, we would declare a state of national emergency and launch a no-cost-barred Manhattan projectto cure it. In the words of Matilda Cuomo, the wife of the governor of New York, "If we can send a woman to the moon, we can surely find a cure for breast cancer." The neglect of breast-cancer research is sexist and a national disgrace whether its painted pink, polka dot or tie die since disease is color blind.
10
I completely disagree with this. It would be true if, for example, people were not aware of the issue, or if it were novel, but breast cancer is just about the most well-known form of the most well-known disease in America, and all this extra pink, year after year, is doing, is making people inured to what was once a jarring sight: something black, or blue, or yellow, or whatever, turned pink.
What is needed now is real research into finding way to treat and, eventually, cure breast cancer. What is not needed now is more pink "stuff" whose proceeds are, by and large, not actually used to help solve the devastating problem that is breast cancer.
What is needed now is real research into finding way to treat and, eventually, cure breast cancer. What is not needed now is more pink "stuff" whose proceeds are, by and large, not actually used to help solve the devastating problem that is breast cancer.
62
Frankly, I am sick of pink. It is everywhere. It seems too easy for corporations of every stripe to dress up their product (pink mixing machines) to show us that they care about breast cancer (really or just cashing in). If anything, the campaign is too successful. Pink handcuffs? Cute but not appropriate. I think it is time to scale back on the colour and restore the real meaning of the cause.
19
"Those who promote the pink campaigns say they raise millions of dollars to fight the disease." Imagine all the money raised by supposed "non-profit" groups on cancer of all types, along with the Billions of Dollars of government-funded cancer research. One simply has to ask, "If Dr. Salk could find and develop a cure for polio in a few short months, working on his own with a few aides and virtually no funding, and if today money is the answer to everything then why do we still have cancer?" The answer simply has to be that Billions of Dollars are being spent the wrong way. And when they finally do find drugs that help cancer patients BIG pharma gouges us with king's ransom prices. It's way beyond a broken system - it's at criminal proportions.
13
There are nuggets of truth in what you're saying, but comparing a polio vaccine to a breast cancer vaccine is complete apples to oranges. Cancer is a tremendously complex disease; each person's cancer is unique to them. You can find fault with some of the parties squandering money that should be used for research, but it's not the medical establishment's fault we don't have a cure for cancer yet.
1
How about the Race for the Cause instead of the Race for the Cure? Big money in treating cancer but not in preventing it.
NYT article: Oh doctor, not breast cancer. I HATE pink.
NYT article: Oh doctor, not breast cancer. I HATE pink.
8
Pink is a color that infantilizes women. I find the Pink campaign nauseating. We ARE AWARE. How do we treat a terrible disease humanely? How do we relieve pain? What can we do to prevent breast cancer? The AIDS ribbon made us aware of a stigmatized disease that was "in the closet," as it were, and needed to be brought to the attention of the general public, the red ribbon worked. Painting things pink is just silly. Let's see that advertising money go to research and care, please.
2
Twenty-five years ago when the pink ribbons first appeared, there were still many people who couldn't say "breast" in a public forum. That has changed - men and women all now acknowledge that people have breasts and it's OK. Beyond that, this "awareness" campaign has, as noted in so many of these comments, been co-opted by corporate America. I think it is the height of absurdity that organizations like the NFL which has a HUGE unacknowledged violence-against-women problem think that prancing around the field in pink shoes and giving out pink hats at games is somehow going to help cure cancer. Enough! Let's start talking about how cancer rates go down when people eat plant based diets and exercise and generally do things that support their bodes. Let's stop pumping milk cows full of hormones, and adding hormone disrupters to a million beauty produces. And lets start funding research appropriately - as a national priority.
18
Pink gloves, cleats, and armbands may not help find a cure, but they will certainly grow the female audience for the NFL.
But that couldn't possibly figure into their calculations
But that couldn't possibly figure into their calculations
20
I don't think it will attract a female audience. It turns this female off. Definitively.
1
Seriously, more women are going to watch the NFL because of the PINK?
1
My best friend was just diagnosed with breast cancer. One of my aunts died of it and all three of her daughters have had double mastectomies by now. I am as aware as anybody of the toll that breast cancer takes. I do not buy things with pink ribbons on it, I do not support 'cancer awareness' - it's research and a cure we need, not marketing ploys. I find the corporate exploitation of this very real and dreadful illness despicable.
334
So what research organizations do you suggest people make contributions to?
1
Pink handcuffs! Stupid. There is no need for this ridiculous pink mania. It's impossible to find a single person who is not aware of breast cancer so why all the bother. If they wanted to really help a cause pick one that actually needs "awareness".
6
As Barbara Ehrenreich pointed out fourteen years ago, placing it in a far more revealing sociopolitical context: http://archive.bcaction.org/uploads/PDF/Harpers.pdf
20
Objections to the pink-movement's trivialization and commodification of breast health aren't new, though I'm glad to see them gaining traction, and the article should have pointed this out. A quote, at least, from Ehrenreich would have given more depth to the article. Thanks for posting the link.
1
Thanks for posting that link Doug. An excellent piece that shows the frustration even all of those years ago. Excellent and highly recommended reading.
2
Thank you! This article, and many of the comments, echo my sentiments. I've always been disturbed by the pinkwashing of breast cancer, but after being diagnosed in 2012, it began to offend me on deeper levels. Just last night, I posted an article about a woman who posted photos of her burns and scars on Tumblr, in an effort to share the realities of treatment. Breast cancer is not pretty and the whole "ra ra for ta tas" thing is bizarre. Moreover, we need to be moving past awareness and focus on environmental triggers, prevention and a friggin' cure.
48
Driving past an awful looking completely pink new Porsche last week, complete with pink ribbon symbols embossed on each door, it made me aware that I should avoid this pink merchandise nonsense movement. Everyone is "aware" of breast cancer. Do my neighbors with the pink garbage sitting out all week think this is helpful? We used to place the garbage cans behind the garage so we did not see them all the time.
7
You can't care if you're not aware.
1
I doubt that pink ever raised awareness. I think it is self-congratulatory: "Look at me, I'm aware!" Loved ones being ill makes people aware, as does listening to others' stories of loved ones who are ill. The pinking has become so pervasive as to become virtually invisible. What a waste of money and resources!
2
My mother had breast cancer and my brother had lung cancer. This pink "happy-fying" of cancer masks the pain and tragedy of those who succumb to cancer, often in the prime of their lives. I agree with previous posters who point out how shameful it is that organizations like Avon reap the publicity benefits of their pink events without contributing to research or to the care of those who suffer. Have money to make or buy something pink? Send it instead to an organization that puts the vast majority of its donations into research.
22
Like another reader noted, only about 10% of cancers are caused by genetics. The rest are environmental and we are unwittingly giving ourselves cancer every day with the harmful chemicals that we slather on our skin.
As someone who has never been diagnosed with cancer, knowing that I can take steps to avoid infusing myself with cancer-causing chemicals is empowering. As it is, it is disturbs me beyond words when I see the pink ribbon on bottles of creams and products that contain these toxins.
As someone who has never been diagnosed with cancer, knowing that I can take steps to avoid infusing myself with cancer-causing chemicals is empowering. As it is, it is disturbs me beyond words when I see the pink ribbon on bottles of creams and products that contain these toxins.
19
What steps will you take to avoid breathing toxins in the air?
1
You're fooling yourself. You're not being wiser than other people who *did* get cancer. You can't protect yourself fully from environmental causes -- and many cancers come not from that but from random mutations in a body cell, i.e. bad luck. Making "good choices" is good but it is not protection -- we are all vulnerable to cancer, just like eventually, no matter how healthy we are, we will all die. Me too.
2
As a breast cancer survivor and the grandmother of a child who has battled Neuroblastoma and is currently in a drug trial to prevent a relapse, I am sick of the hype. There is NO PROFIT for drug companies in finding a cure. There is no profit for doctors or plastic surgeons or hospitals. Let's get real. I want action.
19
A rational national health plan allocates something on the order of 10% of turnover to research to reduce its costs, proportionally to those costs.
2
As a young widow and mother of a toddler, I dont need the pick ribbons and smiles of good will, cancer killed my husband and my son's father. It tore apart my life, the "awareness" campaign is a joke. I only donate money to organizations like The V foundation here in NC that gives money directly to cancer research in academic centers.
23
Direct experience will teach you that "Money" people/executives (business, finance, banking, etc.) have no shame, no allegiance, lie ("obfuscate"), and will exploit anyone, and everything, if there is money to be made (and/or "elections" to be won). I have seen this every day for many years, and when questioning these "do-gooders" as to what REAL, on-the-ground accomplishments they have made over the many years (especially for the enormous amounts of money most of them have raised for the more heavily publicized "causes" and "awareness" - breast cancer is one of many examples), their pitiful excuses are weak, foolish, and naive at BEST. The more well known the organization, the worse they usually are. When you have people in non/for-profit and political leadership positions who CLEARLY prove, through a lack of actual results that help the people truly in need, they are NOT leaders, then photo-ops, "creative truths", self-promotion, and greed is always the result. It is good that people are beginning to accept the fact that they are possibly being taken advantage of, and are starting to question the so-called "good" their money is supposed to be doing in helping people who need help. "Money" ALWAYS needs to be questioned, as does "authority".
14
My wife, who didn't smoke, live with a smoker, or work in a smoke-choked environment at any time in her life. Yet she died of the type of lung cancer most often caused by cigarette smoking. During the three and a half years she survived after her diagnosis, she had to constantly deal with the stigmatization of that disease, while also having to witness breast cancer receiving this growing, massing outpouring of sympathy and money.
Her daughter started a small but wonderful entity, The Pearl Project, with the goal of de-stigmatizing a disease which kills far more women each year than breast cancer in the U.S. (Surprise!)
If you think it might be worth your support, please visit pearlproject.org.
Her daughter started a small but wonderful entity, The Pearl Project, with the goal of de-stigmatizing a disease which kills far more women each year than breast cancer in the U.S. (Surprise!)
If you think it might be worth your support, please visit pearlproject.org.
29
Students at my school had a fundraising table to "raise awareness about breast cancer," this week. I asked them what they wanted people to be aware of, and all they could say was that a lot of women had breast cancer. I asked how being aware of that would change anything, and they couldn't say. They said the organization they were raising the funds for would take care of that. And how were they raising money? Selling pink candy and cupcakes. I pointed out that breast cancer is associated with higher rates of obesity, and they rushed to reassure me that I wasn't obese, so could still buy the stuff. I declined.
From the students' point of view, this was probably a low-bar activity to fulfill a service obligation, or to add charity work to their resumes, and to feel good for "doing something" without thinking about it. But the adults who guide them into this should be thinking about this, and pushing them to ask questions. How about raising awareness on environmental causes of breast cancer?
From the students' point of view, this was probably a low-bar activity to fulfill a service obligation, or to add charity work to their resumes, and to feel good for "doing something" without thinking about it. But the adults who guide them into this should be thinking about this, and pushing them to ask questions. How about raising awareness on environmental causes of breast cancer?
85
Good (and needed) comments and suggestions, Ellen. ALL people in this country are in great need of a "LIFE-Education", as well as an academic education.
3
This pink is all over retail and corporate advertising with their own logos emblazoned:
This is corporate driven "feel-good" crud and nothing more. Cancer is real but this is the worst sort of advertising.
61
How about we start by getting rid of chemicals we know either cause or increase the risk of breast cancer:
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/14-09200/
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/14-09200/
54
Thank you
I was diagnosed with BC this year. One thing I've learned through my own research is that most cancers are not "cured". You have a chronic disease that goes into remission. We could use less focus on "curing" and more on the CAUSES, a significant amount of which are environmental. I read the book "No Family History" and just got angry - 80% of women diagnosed with BC don't have it in their family. There's plenty of evidence that environmental factors play a big part, but fixing that would mean we have to stop polluting the environment with toxins and hormone-mimicking chemicals. Some of the corporate contributers to the "Race for the Cure" et al, manufacture carcinogenic substances.
Finally, in the short run, charity funds could go to help women who experience financial hardship while in treatment, and all women should have access to proton beam therapy. My ticker and lung is just as vulnerable and important as some guy's bladder.
Finally, in the short run, charity funds could go to help women who experience financial hardship while in treatment, and all women should have access to proton beam therapy. My ticker and lung is just as vulnerable and important as some guy's bladder.
112
if "toxic" environment is contributing factor, how do you explain the presence of breast cancer in 4,000 year-old egyptian mummies? hate to tell you, but it's always been around.
1
I have been diagnosed with breast cancer -- and I am sick and tired of the constant dunning reminder of that fact in October. I can't escape it.
But I hated and detested this pink campaign long before that. Where is the research into prevention? Better and more effective and less dangerous, damaging, and mutilating treatments? Breast cancer is BIG BUSINESS for the medical industry, and now for all those commercial purveyors of putrid pink products that do absolutely no one any good.
If you're not already aware of breast cancer, please crawl back under your rock. For the rest of us, we need action, not puke pink. Start with donating to basic research programs, writing to your representatives to encourage their support of more federal support of basic research, and asking as many people you know to do the same. Then do more.
But I hated and detested this pink campaign long before that. Where is the research into prevention? Better and more effective and less dangerous, damaging, and mutilating treatments? Breast cancer is BIG BUSINESS for the medical industry, and now for all those commercial purveyors of putrid pink products that do absolutely no one any good.
If you're not already aware of breast cancer, please crawl back under your rock. For the rest of us, we need action, not puke pink. Start with donating to basic research programs, writing to your representatives to encourage their support of more federal support of basic research, and asking as many people you know to do the same. Then do more.
171
Excellent comments Dr. J. One of the next steps is to MAKE the "representatives" care, and actually DO what they are elected to do, instead of what "big Business" wants them to do (the little "b" is intentional). A lot of good comments are being made, so keep fighting the good fight for ACTIVE involvement, sincerity, and guts, which the people of this country are in great need of doing and having.
2
I hope, I sincerely hope, that you heal and have a successful outcome. Best wishes.
1
At what point is the population "aware" enough? I'm aware of plenty of perils and evils in this world, though I'm not sure wearing a particular color affects them at all. I'd rather see folks be a bit more proactive and dedicate their efforts toward something like a cure -- and not just a race, either.
The October "pink out" has gotten stale and in most cases, the NFL in particular, it's simply pandering.
The October "pink out" has gotten stale and in most cases, the NFL in particular, it's simply pandering.
15
After the president of Susan G. Komen tried to defund Planned Parenthood, I realized that while there are those who truly want to "find a cure," there are others who want nothing more than to pursue their own agendas. The number of television personalities who have used and are still using their breast cancer for self-promotion is appalling! It demeans the women in the shadows who not only struggle, but die from this disease!
85
The pinkification of breast cancer doesn't bother me, the sexualization does. Our mothers and grandmothers fought to have the disease that happens in breasts talked about. The continuation of dialogue is a good thing. I get furious at the boobies, no bra day and ta-tas events that take focus away from a deadly disease and suggest women aren't women without those pretty parts.
18
This campaign has trivialized a very serious disease. I wonder how much of the money raised is spent on research into the environmental causes of cancer, including chemicals that are present in the items that are pinkified to "increase breast cancer awareness"
21
This is all Tony Orlando's fault. He's the one who wrote that darn song that started this entire ribbon business, which has snowballed into this notion, that in order to seek a cure for a disease involves selling and wearing lots of articles of clothing and accessories.
Jonas Salk just did it with a lab.
Jonas Salk just did it with a lab.
11
The fundamental problem goes back to our for-profit health care system. There is no profit incentive to find a cost-effective cure for any disease. The incentive, the profit, is in developing maintenance medications that make the victim a lifetime slave to the medical industrial complex.
33
A cheap shot by Kolata at Dick's sporting goods, a specialty store with a real conscience, this 600 store entity does great good in the communities it serves-----whether it be sponsoring disease or cause related markleting, Dick's sponsors charity or non-for-profit driven runs, games, and anything else it can do. this pittsburgh based company has underwritten baseball in the inner city and quietly revitalized America's past time among a younger generation through equipment and supplies, not verbs and nouns.
4
Having had breast cancer a few years ago, I am so glad to see this article. My thoughts exactly. Let's stress research and finding a cure. And absolutely.. We must expose businesses that profit from pink campaigns, with little or no money raised going to legitimate breast cancer programs. Yes, WE WANT ACTION AND A CURE!!!
17
Why not focus our efforts at all cancers. Is breast cancer more devastating than pancreatic cancer?
14
No, but it's sexier. The reason breast cancer gets attention is because breasts in America are associated with sex.
2
I'm personally tired of hearing how my breasts are going to kill me. I've been "aware" of this since I was about 11 and it's getting old.
13
Count me in as another BC survivor who hates Pink October. I'm all for awareness but I'm also aware that there are lots of other cancers and other lethal diseases out there that don't get this kind of attention/money and they need it more than BC does. Heck, we'll still have all those fund raising walks even if October stops being pink.
14
8% of sales from NFL pink merchandise goes to breast cancer research. For some reason that wasn't mentioned in this story.
American capitalism is great a co-opting the sympathy of the public to line the pockets of the 1%.
American capitalism is great a co-opting the sympathy of the public to line the pockets of the 1%.
50
and what were the actual costs for the pink whistles for the refs, gloves, footwear, uniform for the players, cheerleaders, banners and goal post covers ??
2
Also, it is the NFL's mission to get more female fans. Believe me, that plays into the pink shoes and pink socks.
2
...and so it ever will be.
2
i imagine there are a spectrum of groups raising money for breast cancer, and some of them are better than others. lets do a little research before giving money to any one of them.
5
Diagnosed with breast cancer 21 years ago, I hate everything about this pink awareness business. Sometimes I don't want to think about my dance with cancer, but in October every place I look there is something awash in pink. Makes for a long month. And, why pink? The grown men and women who get breast cancer really are not best symbolized by a color mostly associated with small children in the princesses and unicorns phase of development. And, lastly, the knowledge that we as a nation of people who at least at one time aspired to be the City on a Hill cannot come together to finance, as a government, medical research into cancer and cannot come together to get proper medical information and care to everyone but instead somehow plan to finance our medical well being by dressing sports teams in pink is just about as heartbreaking as having cancer.
99
My Best Friend is an Breast Cancer survior. She proudly wears her pink ribons to bring awarness and share her expericence, strenght and hope. She has been cancer free over 19 years, she shares her story with other women to prevent breast cancer
2
My grandmother and great grandmother died of breast cancer, but I call this stuff Putrid Pink and, if at all possible, do not buy the pink products.
When I see a pink product, I think about the half million dollars a year the socialite head of the Komen group rakes in as her salary.
I think people and companies who personally profit from "breast cancer awareness" should be thrown in jail.
When I see a pink product, I think about the half million dollars a year the socialite head of the Komen group rakes in as her salary.
I think people and companies who personally profit from "breast cancer awareness" should be thrown in jail.
106
A classic example of "style over substance".
Oh, and also commercialization.
Oh, and also commercialization.
20
Pinkification (it seems like new words are created every day now) is the brainchild of the Komen Foundation. The foundation that in 2009 raised almost $300,000,000 in donations and then donated only $14,000,000 (less than 5% of their intake) to breast cancer research and treatment. Where did that other $286,000,000 go? To create more fund raising, generous salaries, private jets, and numerous other perks for the people running the foundation. They have pulled off one of the most successful scams in history and done almost nothing to actually combat the disease they use as a tool to benefit themselves. They prey on people's emotions, sympathy and compassion, collect hard earned money from some people who can barely afford to part with it and then only invest in themselves. To criticize them is to be labeled a misogynist. They refuse to release their financials and the only reason that the 2009 numbers are available is because one of their team became disillusioned with their scam and leaked the information.
435
I agree with you on most points, but I think your safe to criticize without being labeled a misogynist. Disenchantment and frustration with the Komen Foundation is pretty widespread.
2
Lawrence, you mean to tell us that $286,000,000 that the Komen Foundation that could have gone to women with no health coverage to help defray the cost of their care went into their pockets?
I was just in a breast cancer forum where one woman posted she just wanted to go ahead and die already because she had no insurance and no money for medical treatment.
There are service agencies and organizations out there that have budgets for individuals who meet criteria, financial or otherwise, can tap into funds (usually there's a yearly cap) and use them to defray the costs related to their medical/disability related costs. There is such a fund for persons with brain injury for example.
Does the Komen Foundation at least do that with all that money? This is why I no longer give to charities. They are always way to top heavy with salaries and "administrative" costs with a pittance going to the disease.
Shame on them. Women, once again, in a society getting the short end of the stick.
I was just in a breast cancer forum where one woman posted she just wanted to go ahead and die already because she had no insurance and no money for medical treatment.
There are service agencies and organizations out there that have budgets for individuals who meet criteria, financial or otherwise, can tap into funds (usually there's a yearly cap) and use them to defray the costs related to their medical/disability related costs. There is such a fund for persons with brain injury for example.
Does the Komen Foundation at least do that with all that money? This is why I no longer give to charities. They are always way to top heavy with salaries and "administrative" costs with a pittance going to the disease.
Shame on them. Women, once again, in a society getting the short end of the stick.
1
Great post.
1
All the "awareness" on the part of breast cancer means that other cancers are neglected. It's fine to wear pink and run a 5K, but equal thought, time and money needs to be spent to fight other forms of cancer, too. All cancers kill, and everyone who has cancer suffers. Awareness and money need to be spent in equal measure to find cures and treatment for other cancer patients, too.
23
because let's pit the cancer patients against each other!
Retire the ribbons altogether - BC, ovarian cancer, even autism awareness ribbons! Sticking a magnetic ribbon on your care doesn't save lives. Period. Get involved, get educated and send your money to research!
Retire the ribbons altogether - BC, ovarian cancer, even autism awareness ribbons! Sticking a magnetic ribbon on your care doesn't save lives. Period. Get involved, get educated and send your money to research!
2
The pink campaign is such a classic way of dealing with women's issues. Make it feel good, feel happy, put a pretty bow on it, and then ignore the reality of cancer and how there has been no progress on breast. I am sure if it were a men's cancer, there would be a lot more action than just shopping and pretty colors.
312
It's odd that an attempt has been made with a "men's" cancer along these same lines, and it appears to have fallen flat on its face. Prostate cancer has its very own color (yay! blue cancer!), and its own corresponding spot on the calendar, yet, the awareness achieved is no more than a fraction than the hoopla surrounding the pink kind of cancer. Why is that? Is it because it is now more PC to support any sort of woman's issue? I might, at the risk of being flamed, throw out the suggestion that the mental imagery associated with prostate cancer is many times less attractive than the imagery associated with breast cancer.
Regardless, as a man with a nasty case of metastatic prostate cancer, I can tell you that the reality of the cancer is in no way shape or form in need of of a blue ribbon. It needs funding for basic research into modalities of cure. We are all very aware of the cancer, thanks very much.
Thank you for your support.
Regardless, as a man with a nasty case of metastatic prostate cancer, I can tell you that the reality of the cancer is in no way shape or form in need of of a blue ribbon. It needs funding for basic research into modalities of cure. We are all very aware of the cancer, thanks very much.
Thank you for your support.
6
I'm not sure there was any money left over for men's cancers, or children's, or other diseases like schizophrenia that fill so many hospital beds. So in that sense, I guess the pink campaign has been a success.
3
Don't reduce this to sexism. There are men out there with breast cancer, equally frustrated with the lack of real progression toward better treatment options.
2
Stop producing (and spending precious dollars) on pink merchandise. Ask people to give instead DIRECTLY to research and treatment; make that money go to those purposes directly. If you still want to wear pink, recycle all the merchandise already out there.
255
The Susan G. Komen Foundation's spending a mere 5% of its $300 million annual income on breast cancer research thus would not qualify, right?
1
I hate the pinking of cancer. Cancer is cancer, whether it's breast, liver, prostate or bone. I go back to a question I raised when I was young and my aunt died of pancreatic cancer-- why do we talk about a cure for cancer? Why don't we find out the causes so you don't get it in the first place? To me, that is where the research money should go. But I agree with others, the likely causes are industrial/environmental, and no one is prepared to make the changes that such knowledge would require. For example, a study done at Northwestern University several years ago showed that women who routinely applied deodorant within a certain period of time after shaving their underarms had higher rates of breast cancer. It's possible that there might be things in our everyday household and 'beauty' products that contribute to cancers. Ironic since those products often come packaged in pretty colors too.
27
Francois, thank you for your comment. I, too, wonder why the research isn't directed toward the cause, rather than the "cure." I think, that as in many other things, it's about the money - cancer is big business. You are correct when you state that likely causes are industrial/environmental - let me add pharmaceutical and toxic food supply. It is true that no one is prepared to make the changes that knowledge of the cause of cancer would require but I suspect changing from "cure" to "cause" would destroy a cash cow for the cancer industry and pharmaceutical industry.
1
There are no proven scientific links between deodorant use and breast cancer. Urban myth.
1
Does any more awareness need to be raised? For goodness sake, we get it. Only Americans could commercialize "pink" to such a degree. It's really disgusting.
214
I do wear pink ribbons and a pink pin from Estee Lauder since the profits from the pin go 100% to the BRCF founded by Evelyn Lauder and the foundation has the highest rating for 91% of money raised going directly to research. I see nothing wrong with wearing pink.
8
Why must you wear something to show folks that you've spent a few cents to support a cause?
There might be nothing wrong with wearing pink. But there is something wrong with wearing it to be appreciated for your generosity.
There might be nothing wrong with wearing pink. But there is something wrong with wearing it to be appreciated for your generosity.
3
As a country I think we tend to be a little over enthusiastic once we find a symbol to attach to a cause. Red ribbons, yellow ribbons, pink ribbons, rainbow flags, we like visual branding for causes. We feel solidarity in our little ribbons and flags in ways that we don't have the courage to articulate. With or without the color associations, one can debate where the money is going and how it is allocated.
62
Or maybe it's businesses that get a little too enthusiastic. This is not just the month of pink, it's the month of Pumpkin Spice. Seems like every last thing you can put in your mouth or on your body comes in Pumpkin Spice flavor during the month of October. It's enough to make you scream, leave us alone!
There's a name for it: slacktivism. People like the yellow magnets, and the pink ribbons because they can just slap on one their car and feel like they're helping, even though they aren't.
2
I remember when a loved one was fighting breast cancer. She lay sick in bed from endless chemo-therapy while all the ladies in our town went to "pink parties" and "pink social fund raisers" and had a grand ol time. Nobody offered to make a meal for us, chauffeur our kids to school and soccer or even to stop by and see if we needed anything. Something didn't seem right.
My loved one can't stand the color pink now.
My loved one can't stand the color pink now.
186
THANK YOU. You made the point better than I could.
What breast cancer patients need is concrete help -- rides, money, HEALTH INSURANCE, help with family, emotional support, etc.
They don't need a pink t-shirt. The organizations exist to raise money, and promote themselves. They raise a bit for research, but at a HUGE cost (80% is one estimate). That is almost useless.
Meanwhile, they do NOTHING for actual victims of breast cancer.
Their "big accomplishments" over the last several decades were....monthly self exams, and yearly mammograms. Both have been PROVEN BY SCIENCE to be useless in preventing breast cancer.
What breast cancer patients need is concrete help -- rides, money, HEALTH INSURANCE, help with family, emotional support, etc.
They don't need a pink t-shirt. The organizations exist to raise money, and promote themselves. They raise a bit for research, but at a HUGE cost (80% is one estimate). That is almost useless.
Meanwhile, they do NOTHING for actual victims of breast cancer.
Their "big accomplishments" over the last several decades were....monthly self exams, and yearly mammograms. Both have been PROVEN BY SCIENCE to be useless in preventing breast cancer.
3
I had breast cancer 15 years ago but don't identify myself as a "breast cancer survivor" nor do I focus on pink any more than I do on teal, purple, or any other color. Why should I? Am I not still an individual, or should I let breast cancer objectify and define me? Speaking of that: the whole Pink thing feels sexist to me (although men can get breast cancer too). Where's the same hoopla for prostate cancer, Alzheimers or heart disease? Seems to me if it's a disease that affects men, there's more focus on research and serious fund-raising and not a silly color-focused marketing gimmick.
74
Cancer of all types is quite close to solution, because of previous strides in fundamental science. But in the US at least strides are slowing to a crawl because just at the moment when biomedical science is poised to expand and strike at cancer the national research enterprise is being poisoned by budget contraction and anti-scientism. What we need is not pink ribbons but a renewed and strengthened national commitment to science, the real engine behind human advancement and the modern economy.
36
"Quite close to solution"? . Really? Please do tell.
1
And nary a mention of men with breast cancer. They are usually not diagnoses until the cancer has already spread. We need much more research for metastatic cancer, as the article mentioned.
8
I guess it all depends on how much of the money spent on pink could be reasonably assumed to go to research. Companies won't throw millions of dollars into research unless they think it will help profits, or if they are willing to invest in a cure, that spending will be distinct from what is essentially marketing: painting stuff pink. It's gross, but no one should be surprised.
It is hard to quantify the effect of awareness campaigns because it is hard to quantify awareness. How many have given money to real research via the ACS because of awareness campaigns? Better yet, how many youth have gone into careers in research? No one knows.
It is hard to quantify the effect of awareness campaigns because it is hard to quantify awareness. How many have given money to real research via the ACS because of awareness campaigns? Better yet, how many youth have gone into careers in research? No one knows.
5
Fifty years from now we'll learn that cancer awareness programs actually impeded progress towards a cure because it paints the illusion that something good is happening - and that in 2015 we had the technology and knowledge to greatly improve the survivability of all cancers through far less invasive treatments. The analysis will conclude that awareness stifled leadership and that profit trumped progress. With 20/20 hindsight we'll note that once a medical establishment, be it a hospital, cancer center or radiology practice, makes an investment in any piece of equipment utilized to treat cancer, it becomes impossible for them to objectively assess the effectiveness of said equipment. Cancer is a business. There is no incentive to produce a cure.
14
Yes, when I see our neighborhood block association putting pink ribbons on the trees--and not donating a cent to research--it's a sign that "awareness" is accomplishing absolutely nothing.
There is a reason that breast cancer patients cringe as October draws near. We need research; we need a cure. What we don't need is pink balloons, pink ribbons, and feel-good corporate nonsense.
There is a reason that breast cancer patients cringe as October draws near. We need research; we need a cure. What we don't need is pink balloons, pink ribbons, and feel-good corporate nonsense.
32
"Awareness"? Yeah, we're plenty aware. Enough already---how about we stop slashing National Institute of Health (NIH) and NSF (National Science Foundation) funding and start paying scientists a living wage again?
I have a PhD scientist friend doing cutting-edge cancer research. His findings may someday save lives. You'd think the grant money would be pouring in. Nope--another round of budget cuts!
Here's an idea: take all that "awareness" and apply it to your Senators and Congresscritters. Tell them to vote for increased funding of NSF and NIH, and hold their feet to the fire so they report back to you.
Yeah, it's more work than the feelgood moment of buying a pink trinket.
But it just might have an impact.
I have a PhD scientist friend doing cutting-edge cancer research. His findings may someday save lives. You'd think the grant money would be pouring in. Nope--another round of budget cuts!
Here's an idea: take all that "awareness" and apply it to your Senators and Congresscritters. Tell them to vote for increased funding of NSF and NIH, and hold their feet to the fire so they report back to you.
Yeah, it's more work than the feelgood moment of buying a pink trinket.
But it just might have an impact.
382
Amen on the living wage, T! Amen!
3
I wish I could give this comment over a thousand recommends! The NIH budget has been flat for years or decades, yet everyone clamors for a cure for cancer. Awareness does nothing for the 20-30% of women whose cancer has metastasized or who are already at stage 4 at the time of diagnosis. That is almost a third of women diagnosed with breast cancer! Most of the breakthroughs into what drives the cancer cell begin with basic research that might not have an immediate practical application. Many targeted therapies that have been successful in putting cancer into remission have already sprung from these studies. Our country used to be on the forefront of research and we are falling behind. Please, contact your representatives!
3
If the money donated to Susan G. Komen -- or the various monies spent on pink trinkets -- actually went DIRECTLY to research -- or if it went to cancer PATIENTS in the form of helpful services -- it might actually do some good.
2
"The Dick’s Sporting Goods website notes, in fine print, that some of the companies selling the pink products it offers do not donate any money to breast cancer charities. (Dick’s did not respond to a request to comment.) "
That says it all, really. It isn't cynical to point out that most of the corporations "going pink" have absolutely no interest in breast cancer awareness, but are simply doing it for the goodwill that otherwise would have to take creativity and an interest of the well-being of their customers.
That says it all, really. It isn't cynical to point out that most of the corporations "going pink" have absolutely no interest in breast cancer awareness, but are simply doing it for the goodwill that otherwise would have to take creativity and an interest of the well-being of their customers.
30
A few years ago the Susan B Komen Foundation sued other fund raising organizations from using pink ribbons in their fund raising efforts, saying that the pink ribbons were the organization's trademark. That's when I realized many of these "pink" organizations are more interested in self promotion than in funding cancer research. It'd be interesting to know what percentage of these organizations' income actually are used for cancer related issues.
Almost every month in Seattle there's a walk for something, and the whole concept has become a cliche. Perhaps those who participate feel like they need to get some sort of public recognition for their efforts, but there are more cost effective and meaningful ways to support the cause.
Almost every month in Seattle there's a walk for something, and the whole concept has become a cliche. Perhaps those who participate feel like they need to get some sort of public recognition for their efforts, but there are more cost effective and meaningful ways to support the cause.
39
First of all the money raised for breast cancer research has made a huge difference in increasing understanding and improving medical treatment. My mother had it and now my wife has it. There is a 20 year gap between these incidents and the precision of my wife's care is much much better than my Mothers. There is just much better information and less harmful treatments available now.
A cure would be the ultimate result, but reducing side effects and improving the quality of woman's lives even if the quantity cannot be is still very important.
Having said this, it would be good to know what campaigns give the most money to research and to funnel support their way.
A cure would be the ultimate result, but reducing side effects and improving the quality of woman's lives even if the quantity cannot be is still very important.
Having said this, it would be good to know what campaigns give the most money to research and to funnel support their way.
8
The problem is that too many people are getting into the merchandising side of this, instead of the "doing something" side of it. Reminds me of the republican party.
24
One small mention in this article of the real breast cancer "awareness" every woman needs: Town Sports International's assertion that diet and exercise can reduce risk. In about a hundred years breast cancer has gone from a rare disease to one in eight. For most women, it's not genetics, it's lifestyle.
12
Actually it was probably HRT and the fact that we now survive our childbearing years long enough to be experimented on with hormone replacement nonsense. Give your contribution to the real women's health care organizations. Forget push-ups , unless you just enjoy exercise.
Then you have some of the healthiest people on the planet being diagnosed. I'd bet that environmental triggers and chemicals are trumping both lifestyle and genetics for many.
2
Explain that to my sister who was diagnosed five years ago. She's super fit and has a great diet. No genetic component to her case either.
5
The pink craze is nonsense. Give the money directly to the treatment centers that donate hats, wigs, counseling and housing to those with breast cancer.
47
Clearly, the campaign for breast cancer awareness has worked--witness the wall to wall pink of October, the stream of breast cancer messages on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, the endless fundraising messages. Now it's time to focus on research, especially research into metastatic breast cancer. Roughly 20% to 30% of women who develop breast cancer will become metastatic. Those are not insignificant numbers, by any means. What can be done to reduce this figure, which has held steady for decades?
Many women with metastatic disease feel abandoned, and liken their situation to that of AIDS patients in the 1980s, when research was clearly not a priority. I am one of them. And when I see a sea of pink every October, it reminds me of all that is lacking in the realm of breast cancer. Somehow Susan G. Komen, the American Cancer Society, and other groups need to shift their public messaging to calls for research and a focus on the big picture rather than continue to fixate on awareness. That goal was achieved years ago.
Many women with metastatic disease feel abandoned, and liken their situation to that of AIDS patients in the 1980s, when research was clearly not a priority. I am one of them. And when I see a sea of pink every October, it reminds me of all that is lacking in the realm of breast cancer. Somehow Susan G. Komen, the American Cancer Society, and other groups need to shift their public messaging to calls for research and a focus on the big picture rather than continue to fixate on awareness. That goal was achieved years ago.
32
"Awareness" is hardly lacking. It's the research that's needed. As a survivor, I find the pink to be a plague of superficial uselessness, a misdirection of people's well-intentioned, and in some cases, self-congratulatory, efforts.
113
Susan G Coman is clearly an industry and is likely corrupt. Rather than to call out fast food chains for their role their greasy foods play in contributing to breast cancer, it aligns with them. Coman has been linked with partisan efforts to close Planned Parenthood, thus encouraging efforts to prevent poor women from getting free breast exams. CEOs of Coman have been taken to task for their high salaries as well, all the while we fad-crazed Americans don our pink, pop quarters and dollars into the hands of 5 K racers (many of whom contribute to climate change by flying thousands of miles to race).
The organization may do some good but others are probably far more effective in putting their money where their mouths. Some people in this country contribute only to SGC, not to other nonprofits which might actually be far more helpful and whose causes may be far more compelling. Blind allegiance to this "cause" is simplistic thinking. It shouldn't make us feel good at all.
The organization may do some good but others are probably far more effective in putting their money where their mouths. Some people in this country contribute only to SGC, not to other nonprofits which might actually be far more helpful and whose causes may be far more compelling. Blind allegiance to this "cause" is simplistic thinking. It shouldn't make us feel good at all.
66
For starters, it is KOMEN -- not Goman. It would help if you identified it correctly.
I agree on some issues. Susan G. Komen has grown from a small advocacy group into a vast network, and like most such huge "charities" the No. 1 beneficiary is....themselves. Execs that earn huge salaries, etc. (BTW: Planned Parenthood is the same way!).
Once you reach that size, you are like a giant shark that must eat to survive. Your survival becomes the issues, not your original goal. If you donate to Susan G. Komen, most of your money goes to their salaries, posh benefits for the wealthy and a lot of "branding".
On the other hand: poor women can get breast exams at any doctor's office or clinic. PP is not the great friend you think, anymore than SGK.
Even more so: no food causes breast cancer. Most of it is genetic, some is environmental. Trying to make already worried women hysterical about what they eat is cruel and pointless.
I agree on some issues. Susan G. Komen has grown from a small advocacy group into a vast network, and like most such huge "charities" the No. 1 beneficiary is....themselves. Execs that earn huge salaries, etc. (BTW: Planned Parenthood is the same way!).
Once you reach that size, you are like a giant shark that must eat to survive. Your survival becomes the issues, not your original goal. If you donate to Susan G. Komen, most of your money goes to their salaries, posh benefits for the wealthy and a lot of "branding".
On the other hand: poor women can get breast exams at any doctor's office or clinic. PP is not the great friend you think, anymore than SGK.
Even more so: no food causes breast cancer. Most of it is genetic, some is environmental. Trying to make already worried women hysterical about what they eat is cruel and pointless.
1
To say nothing of greed....the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer asks women to raise money to walk...and Avon gets all the press attention... and yet it then pays for all its expenses from money raised and then sends the rest to the various breast cancer research/cate centers...so what's Avon's contribution? Zip. Nothing. Pink is the least of it....follow the money...which corporations are piggybacking on others's sorrows to meet their marketing goals?
163
Why do you think this is so stunningly popular amongst so many companies? It is easy, cheap public relations. It is an easy, cheap way to "look good" without spending much money -- a few dollars on some pink products, that many people buy simply because they like the color.
They look good, promote THEMSELVES and it costs almost nothing.
They look good, promote THEMSELVES and it costs almost nothing.
7
Where is all this money that's theoretically being raised going? One in ten women get the disease in this country. Not in other countries. On so many levels, this whole situation nauseates me. Our diet is killing us and we continue to sell pink stuff for the sake of selling pink stuff. Where are the RESULTS of all this so called awareness? Most likely in the pockets of a few pink CEOs
56
My mother died of metastatic breast cancer. She would have been the last to support the "pinkification" of the cause of her death.
This "pink" theme has reached ridiculously sublime lows. Witness pink handguns of all makes and configurations, not to mention pink rifles, pink shotguns, pink camouflage clothing.
I question whether any of the monies from the sales of these and myriad other more innocuous but no less ridiculous-for-the-color items that is supposedly earmarked for breast cancer research actually goes for that purpose. Whether it does or not, research and treatment funding are incidental to real goal of increased sales and increased profits.
This "pink" theme has reached ridiculously sublime lows. Witness pink handguns of all makes and configurations, not to mention pink rifles, pink shotguns, pink camouflage clothing.
I question whether any of the monies from the sales of these and myriad other more innocuous but no less ridiculous-for-the-color items that is supposedly earmarked for breast cancer research actually goes for that purpose. Whether it does or not, research and treatment funding are incidental to real goal of increased sales and increased profits.
49
For me, the overabundance of pink has the effect of somehow "normalizing" breast cancer as if it is something I should expect to get. That horrifies me because I would want breast cancer to be fought and eradicated. (When I watch football, I would like to watch football without the pink.) How about just a logo or banner on the field telling me how much MONEY the NFL has donated that week to fight breast cancer. KaChing.
9
It does more than "normalize" breast cancer. For all the world it looks like a celebration of breast cancer to me! (Diagnosed stage I September 2011 - I was already "aware", thank you very much.) Direct the effort to finding a cure for metastatic cancer and prevention.
2
When people have suffered from an illness and are battling it or in remission or have recovered, the last thing they need are endless reminders of the illness and IMO -- that's what the proliferation of pink is during the month of October.
People want to get away from it and yet, if they sit down to watch a pro football game in October, there it is in their face so what should be a relaxing bit of escapism becomes a constant reminder of the illness.
Time to stop the "pinking" of October.
People want to get away from it and yet, if they sit down to watch a pro football game in October, there it is in their face so what should be a relaxing bit of escapism becomes a constant reminder of the illness.
Time to stop the "pinking" of October.
13
It's been over the top for a long time, but it became a joke when NFL players started wearing pink each October. Most NFL players don't beat their wives, but there have been enough incidents that it absolutely is an issue.
9
Women need to start asking: where is all the money I'm raising for breast cancer organizations going? Is it going to big salaries? Is it going to painful and useless animal testing that's been done many times before and doesn't get us any closer to the cure? Why aren't women being told that drinking alcohol in excess increases your risk of breast cancer enormously? Why aren't women being told that dietary changes, like bringing more greens and fruits into their diet and eliminating meat, is good prevention. Ask questions before you give. If you don't get good answers, don't give.
8
If simply not drinking or eating vegetarian, eliminated your risk for breast cancer, we'd all know it by now.
General rules for good health apply to all diseases -- if you are strong & healthy & fit, and eat a healthy diet, you will be physically strong and able to fight off MOST (BUT NOT ALL) disease. And if you get sick, you will have the strength to survive the treatments.
BTW: if your only point here was to launch a vegan screen, this was an inappropriate forum to do so.
General rules for good health apply to all diseases -- if you are strong & healthy & fit, and eat a healthy diet, you will be physically strong and able to fight off MOST (BUT NOT ALL) disease. And if you get sick, you will have the strength to survive the treatments.
BTW: if your only point here was to launch a vegan screen, this was an inappropriate forum to do so.
2
As a "breast cancer survivor" I came to realize that not all breast cancers are alike - the non-aggressive, Stage 1 cancer that I had really doesn't deserve to be in the same category as the ravishing, aggressive Stage 3 and 4 cancers that still resist treatment and cure.
Pink ribbons irritate me. What about the fact that there is still no effective screening for ovarian cancer? Or real treatment for breast cancer that quickly spreads to other organs - often in the few months between mammograms? Previous reporting in the NY Times alone leads me to believe that mammograms are over-rated and the pink ribbon campaign is the product of an organization that knows how to keep itself in business (while perhaps forgetting what the point of the business was in the first place).
Pink ribbons irritate me. What about the fact that there is still no effective screening for ovarian cancer? Or real treatment for breast cancer that quickly spreads to other organs - often in the few months between mammograms? Previous reporting in the NY Times alone leads me to believe that mammograms are over-rated and the pink ribbon campaign is the product of an organization that knows how to keep itself in business (while perhaps forgetting what the point of the business was in the first place).
30
Good point on ovarian cancer. It is a terribly deadly killer -- far more so than breast cancer -- and there is NO WAY to screen for it, no self exams, no early testing, nothing. By the time you have symptoms bad enough to notice, you likely have the ovarian cancer metastasized throughout your body.
Every time I discuss this with my OB-GYN, I get a cold shiver of fear. There is so much out there entirely outside of our control.
I think that is part of the whole pinkwashing thing. It lets people feel there is SOMETHING YOU CAN DO -- even something silly like a pink sneaker or pink ribbon or pink-themed walkathon -- to protect yourself.
But in reality, there is almost nothing you can do. Cancer is a silent, clever hunter that stalks its prey. Our own mortality is terrifying.
Every time I discuss this with my OB-GYN, I get a cold shiver of fear. There is so much out there entirely outside of our control.
I think that is part of the whole pinkwashing thing. It lets people feel there is SOMETHING YOU CAN DO -- even something silly like a pink sneaker or pink ribbon or pink-themed walkathon -- to protect yourself.
But in reality, there is almost nothing you can do. Cancer is a silent, clever hunter that stalks its prey. Our own mortality is terrifying.
4
America's ruinously crass health care system is just another playground for scam artists. Medical research should be publicly funded and the results publicly owned.
13
For quite some time, the "pink" campaign seemed to be focused on the Susan G Komen foundation. Once they decided to halt funding for Planned Parenthood, I got off the pink bandwagon. I agree more progress, less publicity will help those who suffer this terrible cancer.
28
What has changed survival of breast cancer patients? Early diagnosis. Certainly new drugs have appeared. But it is early diagnosis that has made the most impact. Now we are told that women should not have mammograms or breast exams so many times or for some at different ages, none. Who will be impacted the most? Those who receive their health care from some government agency like Medicaid and Medicare. Now the government will have some authority to quote. But who pays for these studies that say less monograms and less clinical exams are needed? If we were told studies show that a certain drug was the absolute best for us, many would want to know who funded the studies. If it turns out that the company who makes the pill funded the study, we might suspect the studies were biased. When agencies indicate that studies to detect a serious disease are not so needed, we need to know where the study funding came from and who profits and who saves money.
2
Actually, early diagnosis hasn't changed much. The hope was that it would. It didn't. Death rates from BC are virtually identical to what they were 30 years ago---so all this "early diagnosis" isn't saving lives.
4
Surely, ideas and sentiments become less meaningful from over use.
I'm reminded of a phrase used almost without fail by public officials and figures when a tragedy befalls someone's family. "My thoughts and prayers go out to . . ." I'm sure the messenger has the best of intentions, but a little more spontaneity would make his/her message more meaningful.
Having said that, my thoughts and prayers to all the pink tones on the Pantone color chart in light of the impending diminution of their use.
I'm reminded of a phrase used almost without fail by public officials and figures when a tragedy befalls someone's family. "My thoughts and prayers go out to . . ." I'm sure the messenger has the best of intentions, but a little more spontaneity would make his/her message more meaningful.
Having said that, my thoughts and prayers to all the pink tones on the Pantone color chart in light of the impending diminution of their use.
4
You've got a point, Mr. Dana. Lately, I've been shunning the various pinks when I'm shopping for everything from linens to toothbrushes to some perfectly innocent fruits and vegetables.
I'm a cancer survivor, myself (so far), and am perfectly aware of the scourge of not only that disease, but of dozens of others threatening lives everywhere. I don't need a marketer's dream gimmick to "remind" me.
I'm a cancer survivor, myself (so far), and am perfectly aware of the scourge of not only that disease, but of dozens of others threatening lives everywhere. I don't need a marketer's dream gimmick to "remind" me.
3
I have a jaded view of the "pink" barrage because it seems like a marketing campaign, a trend. More of us will die from heart disease than breast cancer. Undetected, unnoticed, under diagnosed. If we need more awareness for women's health issues heart disease is a good place to start.
11
If we spent half of this money on eradicating the pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and artificial flavors and colors from our food supply, plus the harsh chemicals in our personal healthcare products and household cleaning supplies, I am convinced we would see a marked decrease in the incidences of cancer.
Every time I see a cancer march, I wish the same energy was channeled to protesting the toxic pesticides that are saturating us (starting in utero) in sickness.
Tom Brady had it so right with his recent comments about junk food. Maybe he should lead a (non football-related) march.
Every time I see a cancer march, I wish the same energy was channeled to protesting the toxic pesticides that are saturating us (starting in utero) in sickness.
Tom Brady had it so right with his recent comments about junk food. Maybe he should lead a (non football-related) march.
19
Oh come on folks! How can anyone say anything negative about capitalizing upon the commercialism of breasts and breast cancer and the consumeristic nature of the USA? I mean certainly no one is even considering the idea that actual strides made towards slowing breast cancer or the ultimate, finding a way to avoid (effectively cure) breast cancer would be frowned upon because helping to slow or cure breast cancer it tantamount to putting oneself out of a job, of killing a lucrative business. No, no, banish the thought!
Well, we could demand a truly strong, well-funded, (and well-managed) National Institute of Health that leases any and all discovery (thereby controls costs to some extent) to business, but whoa!!! That's socialism!
Face it, girls. You're breasts are profitable, healthy or diseased. You might consider getting (us) men out of the picture.
Well, we could demand a truly strong, well-funded, (and well-managed) National Institute of Health that leases any and all discovery (thereby controls costs to some extent) to business, but whoa!!! That's socialism!
Face it, girls. You're breasts are profitable, healthy or diseased. You might consider getting (us) men out of the picture.
9
It is a such relief to see this article. My daughter died from breast cancer the summer of 2013. She reached out several times to the 'pink cancer groups' and never came away feeling better, more uplifted ... just worse and no help in the way she needed. The pink groups call me for financial support and when I say no they have become aggressive toward me even when I say my daughter died from breast caner and her several experiences with them made things worse for my her.
46
People please don't let pinkification substitute for political action around reasonable regulation on pharma and radical increases in funding for the National Institutes of Health. Know where your candidates stand on issues that truly affect our pain and suffering.
7
I hope my next comment will not be taken out of context, but as this article points out, Billions are made in profit. If a cure for this horrid disease is found, and we all pray there will be one, how many CORPORATIONS will loose a ton in profits. It's all about the money.
Like the Presidential Campaign, Next election they'll start the campaigning a week after a President is inaugurated.
Sorry if I seem insensitive, I too have lost loved to this.
Like the Presidential Campaign, Next election they'll start the campaigning a week after a President is inaugurated.
Sorry if I seem insensitive, I too have lost loved to this.
17
We are aware of breast cancer. Very aware. Wearing pink and buying makes everyone feel good about doing....something.
How about more attention to causes (hint: environmental) and less patting selves on the back for "awareness"?
How about more attention to causes (hint: environmental) and less patting selves on the back for "awareness"?
8
We're awash in color these days. The latest I saw is teal, for food allergies. When you've gotten to teal, you know you're past the point where any of this is useful.
18
If we had universal healthcare there would be little need to market diseases like they were new flavors of soda.
35
As a survivor of another form of cancer that gets less "awareness," I often think, when I see pink, "So, what about MY cancer? Less deserving?"
14
This is symptomatic of so much of what goes on in the world of "non-profit." It is how careers are made. The absence of profit is true only with respect to the tax code.
9
If you are not yet aware of breast cancer then you been hiding under a rock.
Prevention (mammograms DO NOT prevent breast cancer) and treatment of women with metastatic disease (these women rarely if ever survive their disease) are where money should be going.
Prevention (mammograms DO NOT prevent breast cancer) and treatment of women with metastatic disease (these women rarely if ever survive their disease) are where money should be going.
33
Some people will complain about anything... I think the Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign has been a huge success. It has involved men in the
cause more than ever and has been a positive way for them to show solidarity.
Do we need the other components of money and science? yes! We have been shown the magnitude of the disease, and now we need to put more emphasis on research. But don't throw out the baby with the bath water. It is not either/or... the fight to save women's lives from breast cancer is fought in many ways.
cause more than ever and has been a positive way for them to show solidarity.
Do we need the other components of money and science? yes! We have been shown the magnitude of the disease, and now we need to put more emphasis on research. But don't throw out the baby with the bath water. It is not either/or... the fight to save women's lives from breast cancer is fought in many ways.
14
" positive way for them to show solidarity."
I think that is the question here. It is just one of SHOW and we don't seem to be making any headway, so the question is , does funding do more that just employ a lot of people who are just spinning their wheels for the sake of spinning their wheels? In 50 years, how much money has gone into the funding of breast cancer research as opposed to how many billions have been RAISED on the premise that it goes to research and not "administrative costs".
I think that is the question here. It is just one of SHOW and we don't seem to be making any headway, so the question is , does funding do more that just employ a lot of people who are just spinning their wheels for the sake of spinning their wheels? In 50 years, how much money has gone into the funding of breast cancer research as opposed to how many billions have been RAISED on the premise that it goes to research and not "administrative costs".
2
As a person with metastatic breast cancer to the bone I have to say that you are missing the entire point. Painting everything pink doesn't help find a cure. Companies are making money hand over fist. People think buying pink products are making great donations. How about giving someone a ride to chemo, making a meal or doing some cleaning. A football player with pink shoes doesn't warm my heart. It just a money making scheme for them. Just as reuniting soldiers with their families on the field. They charge the Department of Defense thousands of dollars to make this heartwarming event happen. Donate directly to breast cancer organizations, that way all the money you are spending goes 100% to the cause. Donate time to people who are living it. That is success.
38
By "some people," so you mean the 30 percent of breast cancer patients afflicted by incurable, fatal stage 4 metastatic breast cancer? And by "complain about anything," do you mean that two percent of breast cancer funding is actually directed toward research of metastatic breast cancer?
I am frankly shocked this post is an NYT pick.
I am frankly shocked this post is an NYT pick.
2
For elementary and middle school kids there's many positives for pinking up awareness about a dreadful disease. For these age groups -- and perhaps also for the stereotypically small-minded football fan -- colored themed displays at least put a serious issue into polite conversation.
However, for grown-ups “pink” has become a questionable triumph of form over substance.
The NYT has raised the issue of pink campaign's drift toward superficiality, but the article does not address at all the possible environmental causes of breast cancer — and all cancers for that matter.
The American food system and the myriad chemicals introduced into the environment over the past few years deserve as much scrutiny as life style choices and cautionary notes about mammograms.
If America wants to "save second base," as another cheeky awareness campaign urges, then we need to pull out all the stops as we investigate the cause, even if the investigation raises doubts about our comfortable playing field of modern conveniences and cheap food.
However, for grown-ups “pink” has become a questionable triumph of form over substance.
The NYT has raised the issue of pink campaign's drift toward superficiality, but the article does not address at all the possible environmental causes of breast cancer — and all cancers for that matter.
The American food system and the myriad chemicals introduced into the environment over the past few years deserve as much scrutiny as life style choices and cautionary notes about mammograms.
If America wants to "save second base," as another cheeky awareness campaign urges, then we need to pull out all the stops as we investigate the cause, even if the investigation raises doubts about our comfortable playing field of modern conveniences and cheap food.
47
Food (using the term loosely) production in the USA is the dirty little secret no one talks about. It is causing unimaginable damage to the land, water, and our bodies. As Dr. Jane Goodall aptly states: "How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?”
1
"The American food system and the myriad chemicals introduced into the environment over the past few years deserve as much scrutiny as life style choices and cautionary notes about mammograms."
The GOP voting public already believe that there are TOO many laws regarding chemicals in the environment, food and home, not to mention that any scrutiny could cost JOBS. Nothing is going to change because the GOP will raise the JOBS CARD, just like some people use the "RACE CARD".
The GOP voting public already believe that there are TOO many laws regarding chemicals in the environment, food and home, not to mention that any scrutiny could cost JOBS. Nothing is going to change because the GOP will raise the JOBS CARD, just like some people use the "RACE CARD".
2
A brilliant idea! I'm sure the cancer research community has been long barking up the wrong tree. We should get them to focus on such correlations as you suggest are there. Why did no one think of this before ?
1
Although breast cancer is also a deadly disease, it is also thought to have causes that few are willing to discuss, such as the hormones in birth control pills that have made their way into our water supply and the hormone-emulating substances to which we are exposed every day. Some of these substances are also linked to obesity, by the way.
And don't get me started on mammograms. I'm one of those who has so-called fibrous tissue, so I know that what I really need is an ultrasound exam, but, because I am a woman and because the machines that my healthcare provider has bought must be paid for, I can't get that. It is so frustrating to get a report with a disclaimer that one has a physical feature making a mammogram less than comprehensive, while being denied the test that one really wants. In the meantime, sonography is readily available for many other health issues.
The pink campaign seems very patronizing of those who are struggling with breast cancer, becoming as trite as the equally ubiquitous "Thank you for your service" offered to our veterans. That is reason enough to end it, but another reason is that the characterization of the disease as a "woman's disease", and the even more deadly heart disease as a "man's disease" means that non-stereotypical victims are not taken seriously and may not obtain optimal care. I know, because as a woman with genetic heart disease, I had to insist upon a referral to a cardiologist even after test results revealed a serious issue.
And don't get me started on mammograms. I'm one of those who has so-called fibrous tissue, so I know that what I really need is an ultrasound exam, but, because I am a woman and because the machines that my healthcare provider has bought must be paid for, I can't get that. It is so frustrating to get a report with a disclaimer that one has a physical feature making a mammogram less than comprehensive, while being denied the test that one really wants. In the meantime, sonography is readily available for many other health issues.
The pink campaign seems very patronizing of those who are struggling with breast cancer, becoming as trite as the equally ubiquitous "Thank you for your service" offered to our veterans. That is reason enough to end it, but another reason is that the characterization of the disease as a "woman's disease", and the even more deadly heart disease as a "man's disease" means that non-stereotypical victims are not taken seriously and may not obtain optimal care. I know, because as a woman with genetic heart disease, I had to insist upon a referral to a cardiologist even after test results revealed a serious issue.
21
Birth control pills have been studied for over 50 years -- few drugs have been studied more intensively -- and they do NOT CAUSE BREAST CANCER.
There likely are environmental contributors to breast (and all other) cancers, including toxins in the water supply, fertilizers, food additives, plastics, air pollution, etc. But not birth control pills.
Obesity is now such a moral "catch-all" to blame for everything, that it is hard to take seriously any more accusations. Yes, it's not good for optimal health. But no, there isn't any practical way to treat obesity when 2 out of 3 people are overweight, and diets and other treatments are a pathetic failure. Nobody chooses to be obese or overweight, and most fat people spend a lifetime fighting it. Also: being thin is no guarantee you won't get breast cancer.
I don't like the idea of singling out ONE DISEASE like this, implying the others are less worthy of funding research to fight. I know women who got breast cancer -- were treated and survived, past the 5 year mark. Then they died from coronary artery disease. You don't see people wearing branded stuff for that, and it kills more women than breast cancer each year.
There likely are environmental contributors to breast (and all other) cancers, including toxins in the water supply, fertilizers, food additives, plastics, air pollution, etc. But not birth control pills.
Obesity is now such a moral "catch-all" to blame for everything, that it is hard to take seriously any more accusations. Yes, it's not good for optimal health. But no, there isn't any practical way to treat obesity when 2 out of 3 people are overweight, and diets and other treatments are a pathetic failure. Nobody chooses to be obese or overweight, and most fat people spend a lifetime fighting it. Also: being thin is no guarantee you won't get breast cancer.
I don't like the idea of singling out ONE DISEASE like this, implying the others are less worthy of funding research to fight. I know women who got breast cancer -- were treated and survived, past the 5 year mark. Then they died from coronary artery disease. You don't see people wearing branded stuff for that, and it kills more women than breast cancer each year.
2
FYI, the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute both report that the use of birth control pills, and, in particular, the triphasic variety of that medication, are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer that does not decrease to the level experienced by a woman who has never taken the pills until those have been discontinued for about 10 years. Now, birth control pills have been continuously tweaked to be about as safe as they can be, and, obviously, women aren't going to stop taking the pills for fear of developing breast cancer, because, for those not wishing to have a baby, the risk factor associated with taking the pills is outweighed by the ramifications of not taking them. Not everyone who takes the pills is on them for pregnancy prevention, however. I just think that it's about time that more facts about the causes of breast cancer were known, so that women could make more informed choices.
1
Thank you for reporting on this point of view, which I share. The proliferation of pink plastic junk will not advance research or a cure.
23
Men can get breast cancer too, so why the pink?
11
Why not make it the month you contribute to Planned Parenthood which at least gives access to diagnostic procedures for many women who might not have care otherwise. Then send a letter to your Washington representatives on pink paper asking to fund PP.
45
How much more "aware" can we be? I am willing to bet that every woman knows many others (and maybe some men) who have been diagnosed with, and treated for, breast cancer; everyone I know has lost friends to the disease. It is harrowing. We read about and discuss the latest research and findings on possible links and causes, as well as screening, diagnosis and treatment options.
Enough already. Turn all that gooey pink into green - funding for a cure and substantive, effective preventive measures available to all.
Enough already. Turn all that gooey pink into green - funding for a cure and substantive, effective preventive measures available to all.
22
There will always those find something negative in the best of intentions. What a shame.
Well, Jose Cuervo, we all know that the road to [] is paved with good intentions. Personally, I'd rather not take that route. Effective action is much more admirable.
12
Any company selling pink products to make a buck with no intention of donating the money to breast-cancer research, or even supporting women who live with breast cancer, should be boycotted. It is my hope that there be further investigation into which companies profit off such an immoral practice.
23
What women of the world really need to know is the CAUSE of breast cancer and not just the cure. That would be worthy of wearing pink.
17
As always, when you have large corporations involved, there is an air of phoniness around any kind of public advocacy. I would suggest that the pink idea has run its course, and now it's time to move on to something else, maybe more concrete and less showy.
15
It's simple, really. To support breast cancer "awareness" is to support corporations and wasteful spending, instead of Planned Parenthood or a cure. The vile Komen group epitomizes that, its late walkback notwithstanding.
Stand Up to Cancer...and Greed too.
Stand Up to Cancer...and Greed too.
47
How sad this is for you. Your daughter died in the midst of this crazed, only in America, campaign. It is hard to imagine the appeals you must endure from pink fundraisers. I thought it was awful, buy your account is especially difficult.
This whole shlock was always about the titillating aspects of marketing breasts. I know breast surgeons who felt they could not resist this garbage. Only in America.
I hope you find peace with the loss of your daughter.
This whole shlock was always about the titillating aspects of marketing breasts. I know breast surgeons who felt they could not resist this garbage. Only in America.
I hope you find peace with the loss of your daughter.
1
no doubt fighting breast cancer is important but this "pinkification" has gone way overboard. Last time I looked prostate cancer in men was every bit as deadly in number as breast. Reverse sexism?
8
These slick 'pink' campaigns have been and always will be about marketing and getting their products front and center. Women in the advanced stages of this disease need research not pub crawls and pink shoes. If these companies and the people who work for them really want to help they would camp out at their local congressional office and demand at least as much funding as they have spent on that blimp that floated away!
Do something positive rather than 'colorizing' your wardrobe.
Do something positive rather than 'colorizing' your wardrobe.
18
why does there have to be so many different "cancer" charities... surely, if someone finds a cure/vaccine for one form of cancer, the road to the other forms will not be long or hard to follow.
And I'm always displeased that such charities have such a plethora of high-paid executives, mid-management and expensive offices and travel budgets.
Lemme make it simple..
In each country, take one piece of land and put a massive state-of-the-art series of labs and research facilities to conduct all the work necessary to find cures for ALL these diseases. After all, we've been throwing BILLIONS of dollars/pounds at the research for decades and still no cure - so we're doing something wrong.
It's become an industry - there's too many charities.. combine them and have them work TOGETHER in shared facilties..
but stop all the PINKness...
And, btw, that's from a father of four daughters who lost his mother to breast cancer.
And I'm always displeased that such charities have such a plethora of high-paid executives, mid-management and expensive offices and travel budgets.
Lemme make it simple..
In each country, take one piece of land and put a massive state-of-the-art series of labs and research facilities to conduct all the work necessary to find cures for ALL these diseases. After all, we've been throwing BILLIONS of dollars/pounds at the research for decades and still no cure - so we're doing something wrong.
It's become an industry - there's too many charities.. combine them and have them work TOGETHER in shared facilties..
but stop all the PINKness...
And, btw, that's from a father of four daughters who lost his mother to breast cancer.
11
Actually -- cancer is not "one disease". It is a whole bunch of different diseases. What cures one cancer will NOT cure another cancer.
The problem in our society is that we have turned non-profits into huge fake organizations that exist to benefit their upper management -- THEY get high salaries and posh jobs, and hobnob with the upper classes. The actual victims get very little. Research gets very little. The majority of funds ends up spent on things like fundraisers, events, advertising.
I worked for one non-profit group that threw a "Mardi Gras" themed fund raiser. Even the invitations were very costly, embossed gold foil. The food was provided by the fanciest caterer in town -- it was delicious and elaborate. There was entertainment, decorations. It took us over half the year just to plan and organize this huge event, which was a big success -- covered in all the local media for weeks.
The result? We went so far over budget, that EVERY DOLLAR RAISED by generous contributors went to pay off the caterer, rented hall, musicians and other contributors. We ended up several thousand dollars in DEBT, and not a penny went to the non-profit to carry on their work.
This kind of thing is far more common than folks realize when they give.
The problem in our society is that we have turned non-profits into huge fake organizations that exist to benefit their upper management -- THEY get high salaries and posh jobs, and hobnob with the upper classes. The actual victims get very little. Research gets very little. The majority of funds ends up spent on things like fundraisers, events, advertising.
I worked for one non-profit group that threw a "Mardi Gras" themed fund raiser. Even the invitations were very costly, embossed gold foil. The food was provided by the fanciest caterer in town -- it was delicious and elaborate. There was entertainment, decorations. It took us over half the year just to plan and organize this huge event, which was a big success -- covered in all the local media for weeks.
The result? We went so far over budget, that EVERY DOLLAR RAISED by generous contributors went to pay off the caterer, rented hall, musicians and other contributors. We ended up several thousand dollars in DEBT, and not a penny went to the non-profit to carry on their work.
This kind of thing is far more common than folks realize when they give.
6
Last week I heard a radio advert for a local liquor store about a sale on pink wines and part of the proceeds going toward breast cancer awareness! Are you kidding me? What's next, marlboro pinks? (Drinkin' and smokin' our way to a cure) The shark was jumped a long time ago on this campaign, now it is purely a way for companies to market themselves in a "feel good" way. It is blatant and tacky.
The intersection of profit and healthcare is not one easily navigated.
The intersection of profit and healthcare is not one easily navigated.
22
Too ironic, since drinking alcohol (and smoking tobacco) contributes to the development of cancer. Even one drink a day significantly increases the risk of breast cancer.
6
Cancer in general is a cash cow for the medical industry, breast cancer on the pedestal. Only 20% of Komen money goes to research, for example.
20
Several years ago, while having my annual physical, my primary care physician sounded off on the Komen Foundation. He was incensed that such a low % of their income goes to research & such a high % goes to salaries. He also pointed out that lung cancer & colon cancer kill as many women as breast cancer, but have no pink license plates.
Enough with the pink. Let's just find a cure.
Enough with the pink. Let's just find a cure.
19
Even worse: the other 80% goes to salaries and self-promotion. Their execs fly around the country (the world, probably) and dine out, and plan events with the biggest corporations and wealthiest donors. Trust me -- that is a FUN lifestyle. It is glamorous and it is very high paying.
People who do this start out sincere most of the time, but the posh lifestyle quickly turns their heads. They like meeting CEOs and movie stars and having them as "friends". They like jetsetting around, and being interviewed on TV.
Pretty soon, "the cause" is sublimated to all the fund raising events -- most of which cost so much that they turn very little actual dollars over to researchers. Not zero, but it is far less than you realize. If you give Susan G. Komen a $100 check, it is likely that less than $20 goes to actual research, but $80 goes to their execs in posh offices. Is that really what you intend when you give?
People who do this start out sincere most of the time, but the posh lifestyle quickly turns their heads. They like meeting CEOs and movie stars and having them as "friends". They like jetsetting around, and being interviewed on TV.
Pretty soon, "the cause" is sublimated to all the fund raising events -- most of which cost so much that they turn very little actual dollars over to researchers. Not zero, but it is far less than you realize. If you give Susan G. Komen a $100 check, it is likely that less than $20 goes to actual research, but $80 goes to their execs in posh offices. Is that really what you intend when you give?
5
I agree that the focus on awareness should be shifted toward more research to find better treatments. I have also long wished that a ribbon color would one day represent another public health problem, that is, depression/mental health and all that goes with those very common medical problems. Research dollars there are few and many list Depression as the second most common disease. I work in this field and I know what the stigma does to people's ability to even come in for help. Of topic, granted- but I would like to see both problems receive the medical dollars needed to improve public health.
7
Is there anyone, save for little children, who isn't aware of breast cancer?
An estimated 230,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
An estimated 220,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year.
Karuna Jaggar is right. Enough with the awareness. Research for ALL kinds of cancers needs to be funded way more than it is.
An estimated 230,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
An estimated 220,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year.
Karuna Jaggar is right. Enough with the awareness. Research for ALL kinds of cancers needs to be funded way more than it is.
28
Both genders get cancer. However, it is unfair to compare prostate cancers to breast cancer -- breast cancer is more deadly. It occurs in younger people, and if it metastasizes, it can be fatal. The treatment often includes mutilating surgery.
Most prostate occur in older men (over 60) and are very slow growing, and most will not end up killing the patient. It is not as deadly as breast cancer.
That is part of why it does not get the same attention. However, men certainly do get cancer and other diseases -- they can even get breast cancer, though it is rare -- and I don't like ANY fundraising that implies women or anyone are "more important" or more deserving of attention, funding, donations.
Most prostate occur in older men (over 60) and are very slow growing, and most will not end up killing the patient. It is not as deadly as breast cancer.
That is part of why it does not get the same attention. However, men certainly do get cancer and other diseases -- they can even get breast cancer, though it is rare -- and I don't like ANY fundraising that implies women or anyone are "more important" or more deserving of attention, funding, donations.
4
Readers may be unaware that lung cancer kills more people annually than breast, colon or prostate cancers combined. Breast cancer receives far more federal funding than any of these cancers. More women die of lung cancer every year than of breast cancer. For anyone with any type of cancer, support is appreciated and needed.
14
Wearing of symbolic paraphernalia (in this case the "wearing of the pink") is actually a substitute for taking action. Don't wear something, DO something. learn something about the disease, support basic research by making a contribution (rather than buying pink stuff that you won't wear again); calling your representative to oppose budget cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and the NIH, visit a hospice, discuss with your kids.
45
Pink jumped the shark when basketball coaches started wearing pink tennies.
7
It seems that these fund raising organizations could only exist in America. The American Cancer Society, Susan G. Koman, and others raise lots of money. But where does all of that cash go?
Some of it goes for more screening, which fills the coffers of hospitals, doctors, big pharma and medical device makers, even if it provides no statistical benefit to the population.
Cures are elusive, but everyone in management, advertising and in the media make money along the way. If and when a cure is found, you can be sure that it will be expensive, despite all of the donations that are raised. It's all about the money.
Some of it goes for more screening, which fills the coffers of hospitals, doctors, big pharma and medical device makers, even if it provides no statistical benefit to the population.
Cures are elusive, but everyone in management, advertising and in the media make money along the way. If and when a cure is found, you can be sure that it will be expensive, despite all of the donations that are raised. It's all about the money.
20
Ralph, 91% of money raised by Breast Cancer Research Foundation goes to research. Of course, it's run by the Lauder companies and founded by Evelyn Lauder (no, I'm not paid by EL). Same can't be said for the Komen Foundation). There is a site to check rankings of charitable foundations.
3
When I see all the pink on NFL teams, I don't think awareness; I wonder just how much money the league spent on pink headsets, shoes, uniforms, etc. and whether it is just one more marketing tool for the league (we support the cause so buy our stuff). It would make much more sense for the NFL to write a check for the equivalent amount of money--signed in pink ink, if that makes them feel good.
150
Like everything in America the true meaning and idea has been stolen for marketing purposes. I wonder how much money is spent on all the specialty made pink jerseys and other stuff.
15
At its core, pinkwashing is the "thank you for your service" for breast cancer patients and survivors.
Somewhere along the line, "awareness" became our default response to troubling situations. We can wear ribbons, post Facebook memes and tweet hashtags and feel good about having done "something" without any real effort. It's far easier than actually volunteering to help those afflicted or doing the due diligence to find and donate to a worthy cause.
Perhaps some corporations were motivated by a sense of altruism to support breast cancer research with contributions. Others are clearly motivated to 'go pink' merely for the marketing benefits. For example, one has to wonder if the NFL would have embraced pink if it weren't trying to widen its appeal to women. And you have to wonder what kind of tax benefits corporations receive in return for the donations they make to breast cancer charities on behalf of customers who buy pink products.
As someone whose life has been affected by breast cancer, I'd rather make my own donation choices (and get the tax deduction myself) and be a receptive friend to someone managing the disease.
Somewhere along the line, "awareness" became our default response to troubling situations. We can wear ribbons, post Facebook memes and tweet hashtags and feel good about having done "something" without any real effort. It's far easier than actually volunteering to help those afflicted or doing the due diligence to find and donate to a worthy cause.
Perhaps some corporations were motivated by a sense of altruism to support breast cancer research with contributions. Others are clearly motivated to 'go pink' merely for the marketing benefits. For example, one has to wonder if the NFL would have embraced pink if it weren't trying to widen its appeal to women. And you have to wonder what kind of tax benefits corporations receive in return for the donations they make to breast cancer charities on behalf of customers who buy pink products.
As someone whose life has been affected by breast cancer, I'd rather make my own donation choices (and get the tax deduction myself) and be a receptive friend to someone managing the disease.
161
"For example, one has to wonder if the NFL would have embraced pink if it weren't trying to widen its appeal to women."
Given the number of news stories related to the "women of the football culture" who are abused by their football-playing other halves, one suspects it is JUST a marketing ploy.
Given the number of news stories related to the "women of the football culture" who are abused by their football-playing other halves, one suspects it is JUST a marketing ploy.
3
The many B.C. organizations should pool ALL their monetary contributions, coordinate and FOCUS their research efforts, instead of spreading their many contribution dollars in so many uncoordinated directions.
A cure needs a targeted approach; not each and every organization going off and doing their own thing. That diffused approach simply spends the contribution dollars for overhead and staffing, not research toward a cure. When will the B.C. research and non-profit world wake up to this reality?
A cure needs a targeted approach; not each and every organization going off and doing their own thing. That diffused approach simply spends the contribution dollars for overhead and staffing, not research toward a cure. When will the B.C. research and non-profit world wake up to this reality?
87
This is like the war in Iraq. It's not a matter of money, men, and resources. It's a matter of fighting a war that was avoidable. If we can prevent breast cancer, and I believe we can (Google the human mammary tumor virus) with appropriately targeted preventive vaccines, then we should be doing so. But what profiteering stakeholder will make the move to end breast cancer with a vaccine or two, not when they can keep the mills running forever in the name of treatment or a cure?
What about helping women who can't afford surgery or reconstruction or childcare during treatment, or rent, or nutritious food? Since each charity focuses on research separately, one may approach the problem conservatively, one with basic science, one with wild, out-there ideas. One may be immunology approaches only, one for radiotherapy, one for blocking metastases, one for discovering a perfect blood test. We don't know which one is the right approach, so I say go for it! Are there wasted administrative dollars this way? You bet there are but who knows which focus will work best and for which patients?
2
Fully agree, everyone around is tired of the onslaught of pink. We do have breast cancer in the family, and I am all for more research and treatment options, but this campaign strikes me as silly and unnecessary. Try to find one person around you who is not "aware" of breast cancer and the mammograms. Do not know a single one, including schoolkids. Pink football socks, pink stripes in the middle of the streets, pink ribbons wrapped around telephone poles, all of this is too much. My teenagers question why there is a whole month with all this paraphernalia that is dedicated exclusively to breast cancer, they know that other cancers exist too, and are perplexed by complete lack of attention to those.
243
Among my many problems with this: it suggest breast cancer is uniquely WORSE than all other cancers, or is a majority of all cancers. It is not any of those things. It does occur mostly in women.
There was a time, and probably only us oldsters remember it, when breast cancer was hidden and somewhat shameful -- talking about "boobies" was embarrassing. TV used to be VERY prudish, you could not even say the word "breast" in a medical sense.
So back then -- over 40 years ago -- it did make some sense to bring this terrible disease out of the closet, and let women talk about their experiences. Also to educate women (albeit on things like self exams and mammograms that are debated today).
That aspect was good, but it was accomplished over 25 years ago. And it was in the serious form of people's books about their experiences, films, talk shows, etc. It wasn't all this "pink washing".
Heck, to see all of this, you'd hardly realize there is a deadly disease we are talking about!
There was a time, and probably only us oldsters remember it, when breast cancer was hidden and somewhat shameful -- talking about "boobies" was embarrassing. TV used to be VERY prudish, you could not even say the word "breast" in a medical sense.
So back then -- over 40 years ago -- it did make some sense to bring this terrible disease out of the closet, and let women talk about their experiences. Also to educate women (albeit on things like self exams and mammograms that are debated today).
That aspect was good, but it was accomplished over 25 years ago. And it was in the serious form of people's books about their experiences, films, talk shows, etc. It wasn't all this "pink washing".
Heck, to see all of this, you'd hardly realize there is a deadly disease we are talking about!
11
Having had major surgery for pancreatic cancer, with the accompanying chemo and radiation therapy I am now struggling with "life after cancer" or what is known as the new normal. Finding a cure for cancer will not be complete until we address all the affects of the disastrous disease.
3
Pink - I'm down with it.
An issue for many is that the moment that pink ribbon, et al, gets brandished, the pressure is on to say yes to whatever, without any vetting of the utility or reliability of the sponsors and recipients of donations. It begins to feel very manipulative. And It certainly gets confusing when it is used to increase screening by mammograms at the moment that that is being debated in more sophisticated forums.
18
And an important issue that also needs to be addressed is that money raised needs to go into breast cancer research.
28
It's not so much the symbols used to raise awareness and money for a most worthy cause, but the use of that money by a small minority of the organizations that purport to serve the interests of those who have suffered from breast cancer that raises concern. Raising awareness about breast cancer and providing support to those who suffer from, or are at risk of developing breast cancer, are far different matters than serving the interests of a small group of top officials/administrators of some organizations.
In any case, in a society that commodities almost everything, if most of the money raised by an organization goes directly to helping people, then symbols are not necessarily a bad idea.
In any case, in a society that commodities almost everything, if most of the money raised by an organization goes directly to helping people, then symbols are not necessarily a bad idea.
12
As a person who lost several loved ones to Breast Cancer, in the month of October, no less, I think that Pink has just gone too far. Far enough to be very annoying. I thought it went over the top, when I saw a University of Oregon team donned pink uniforms last year. It was like a nightmare version of a Pink Panther cartoon.
I understand the need for awareness of this horrid disease, but there are much better ways to spend money to do so, than painting the world pink. Those who do donate to find a cure, for cancer, must have to wonder is this money spent is prudent. How much does it cost to outfit athletes, stadia, and arenas for "pink awareness"?
Unfortunately, the way things work in the USA, is that when someone comes up with an idea fro a promotion, movie, Tv show, etc. other have to take it and run it into the ground. That si certainly what was done with Breast Cancer Awareness.
I understand the need for awareness of this horrid disease, but there are much better ways to spend money to do so, than painting the world pink. Those who do donate to find a cure, for cancer, must have to wonder is this money spent is prudent. How much does it cost to outfit athletes, stadia, and arenas for "pink awareness"?
Unfortunately, the way things work in the USA, is that when someone comes up with an idea fro a promotion, movie, Tv show, etc. other have to take it and run it into the ground. That si certainly what was done with Breast Cancer Awareness.
190
It is my understanding that the corporations (NFL, airlines, retailers, etc) absorb the cost of the pink paraphernalia their employees wear as their contribution to the cause. So it's not an issue of consumers spending their money involuntarily
But Julie -- EVERY NICKEL they spend on pink uniforms and trinkets is a nickel that DOES NOT GO TO RESEARCH. It goes to other businesses. It doesn't raise funds from the public. It amounts to PR that says "see? we are really nice folks".
I'd be more impressed of the NFL sent a $50 million check to breast cancer research operations....where it would do some good. God knows, they could afford this amount and more.
I'd be more impressed of the NFL sent a $50 million check to breast cancer research operations....where it would do some good. God knows, they could afford this amount and more.
23
De-focus, desensitize and a way to boost non-related sales without providing any real benefit in my opinion.
Yes, I have been more involved with breast cancer than I ever thought I would be, married to a and son of survivors, not to mention friends with other survivors. It is interesting that I have seen, and participated in, tons of fund raising events, but never saw any patient level contact other than to "support the cause". It's not just this cancer cause either that I am beginning to wonder about...
Yes, I have been more involved with breast cancer than I ever thought I would be, married to a and son of survivors, not to mention friends with other survivors. It is interesting that I have seen, and participated in, tons of fund raising events, but never saw any patient level contact other than to "support the cause". It's not just this cancer cause either that I am beginning to wonder about...
93
I worked in the non-profit field for many years.
Most become behemoths that mostly work to benefit THEMSELVES -- to continue their existence. They are vast "machines" for raising money. Their executives and administrators often earn shockingly high salaries (plus lavish perks and benefits) you would only expect in private industry.
A lot of the people who go into this really thrive on the public exposure, and all the lavish fundraisers, which bring into direct social contact with the very wealthy.
See Mel Brook's Blazing Saddles. He explains almost everything in the universe..."We have to protect our phony baloney jobs, gentleman".
Most become behemoths that mostly work to benefit THEMSELVES -- to continue their existence. They are vast "machines" for raising money. Their executives and administrators often earn shockingly high salaries (plus lavish perks and benefits) you would only expect in private industry.
A lot of the people who go into this really thrive on the public exposure, and all the lavish fundraisers, which bring into direct social contact with the very wealthy.
See Mel Brook's Blazing Saddles. He explains almost everything in the universe..."We have to protect our phony baloney jobs, gentleman".
15
Thankyou for your article Just look at all the comments generated regarding "pinkification". I have always termed it "pink washed". Either term the message is the same. We could take the money spent on pink and fund NBCC's "stop breast cancer by 2020 "campaign and finally end breast cancer. They are on the right track by looking at a vaccine to prevent breast cancer and trying to figure out why breast cancer cells leave the breast and travel to other organs , thus killing us. Stop breastcancer2020.org.
2
Sad you pick out Delta. I have seen flight attendants raising money through the Pink campaign and donate 1000's of dollars through their own initiatives. This is grassroots activism, and Delta for one has encouraged and been a leader.