Breast cancer month overshadowed by 'pinkwashing'

CTV ^ | Oct 9, 2010 | Angela Mulholland

[fightinJAG]

Every October, stores become a sea of pink as shelves fill with products adorned with pink ribbons or repackaged in pink as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's all seen as a feel-good win-win: Consumers get the products they want while helping out a great cause. What could be wrong?

Lots, say groups and breast cancer patients who are sick of companies trying to push shoppers into thinking that pink candies, pink toasters and pink spatulas will make a dent in curing cancer.

It's bad enough, they say, that corporations are profiting off the pink ribbon – and the disease that left them feeling anything but pink. It's worse when those companies "pinkwash": hitching a ride on the pink ribbon bandwagon to sell products actually linked to cancer.

[Elvina]

Well no one ever claimed that liberals were good at math!

[devane617]

Correct...See my post #6...

[originalbuckeye]

Exactly. I refuse to walk in the Komen Walk every year and my colleagues don't understand. I walked in the very first Revlon Walk for the Cure in LA in the early 90’s. Then I found out which groups Komen was supporting. Scam city. And who doesn't think that EVERYONE already knows about the perils of Breast Cancer? This pink campaign is just to raise funds for Leftist causes. The irony is.......the Leftists who run the country haven't even acknowledged that Socialized Medicine has already decreed that women don't NEED mammograms until age 50. We are ‘overtreating’ women and scaring them needlessly with the early detection of problems. The dirty little secret with Socialized Medicine is that they want your money but can't be bothered to give you good medical care. You will just die......oh, happy world for Rep Grayson (D-FL)!

[Clint Williams]

Never cared for pinkos. Still don’t.

[CaliforniaCon]

RE: “You just pushed a big button....I HATE THE PINK MAFIA!!!! I am so sick of PINK I want to puke.”

******************

Amen to that! This pink onslaught every year may as well be Code Pink. Over the top and definitely offensive now — the little ribbon was OK, as are all the little ribbons for every cause — much more subtle.

Diabetes month is also October, or is it November? Can’t remember — everything else is pushed aside by the PINK. And I like the color pink, in general.

I refuse to buy anything at all that is packaged in breast cancer pink — last year I had to avoid the Cheerios boxes! And FWIW, I’m female and have had my own ‘issues’ with this health problem. So I’m not some angry guy who doesn’t like seeing his favorite sports teams done up in ‘pink.’

[Spunky]

I am glad to see I am not the only one who is sick of all this pink stuff.

It has even got Manly Men to become Girly Men.

YUK!

[Biggirl]

Here is a website of the different color awareness ribbons.

http://www.craftsnscraps.com/jewelry/ribbons.html

[Biggirl]

While I am for fighting breast cancer, I am for fighting all forms of cancer as well. This pink stuff sure looks like it is getting out of hand here.

[Spunky]

"I will start taking the interest in breast cancer seriously when somebody does a study with women who have NEVER taken birth control pills as the control group."

I had an Aunt at the age of 35 who died of Breast Cancer. This was long before Birth Control. She was never married and never had children.

[MamaTexan]

I actually avoid “pink” products.

I never really cared either way about 'pink' products...unitl they screwed with my chocolate!

Now, I avoid it like the plague.

[Huntress]

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/oral-contraceptives

Scroll down to Item #2, second paragraph.

[RitaOK]

Oh yeah, this is the most lucrative marketing racket I think I’ve seen, EVER! I am speaking out at the cash register, when the ULTA girls are required to ask “do you want to give a dollar to fight cancer?” I would rather give two dollars to shutting Komen down and saving aborted babies, a bloody procedure which Komen approves and supports with your “cancer” money. Blech.

[caseinpoint]

I’d like to see it exclude women who have had fertility treatments, HRT, or undergone voluntary abortions also. Messing with hormones seems to be a big risk factor. A good friend of mine just finished battling back an aggressive breast cancer for the second time, which her doctor attributes to fertility treatments a quarter century ago.

[G Larry]

I didn’t say breast cancer didn’t exist before BCP’s!

Look at the rate of increase 20 years after the introduction of BCP’s!!!

The slope starting in 1980 is remarkable!

[mlizzy]

The pink is annoying, I agree. And although there is no definitive research as to whether Frankincense oil can cure breast cancer, it does, however, kill bladder cancer cells. As my grandmother had breast cancer, and I just lost a long-time friend to the disease who fought for five long years, I use Frankincense almost every day for its antitumoral benefits diluted with a carrier oil. It's also extremely beneficial for the emotional response of anger. Link. I wish I had known about this when my kids were growing up, and my patience wasn't always tip-top.

And, oh, yeah, the Frankincense comes in a pink bottle, but it's a really dark pink.

[G Larry]

THAT is NOT a “control group”!

A control group would be following a group of 200 women who had never taken BCPs and counting the incidence of breast cancer in the group.

This was a count of women who had breast cancer and then asking their history.
This has the effect of beginning with a polluted sample, not a control group!

[Mr Ramsbotham]

I had an Aunt at the age of 35 who died of Breast Cancer. This was long before Birth Control. She was never married and never had children.

Well, there you have it. Birth control pills do not cause breast cancer.

[A knight without armor]

You are absolutely right. What other thing are you ever encouraged to send in that you lick? Ok, I know you don't HAVE to lick them but that is what people naturally do and it is what they show on the commercials. By the way I notice this one place I work they are always collecting pop can rings for some cause, too.

[A knight without armor]

I’m with you. I refuse to buy anything pink, too. Anything. I will do without if I have to. And this may sound nuts, but frankly I don’t like the word cancer written on my food.

[dawn53]

I have three close friends who have all had breast cancer in the last couple of years (diagnosed in their late 40’s early 50’s.) None had ever taken hormones or birth control pills. In fact none of the so called “risk” factors were evident in any of the women. No genetic predisposition, all had had children (one had a very large family) and they had started their families at a young age, etc. Just shows to go you that control is an illusion. You can do all the so called “right” things, eliminate the known risk factors and still get a disease.