The post that makes me a cynical bastard
Welcome to one of my least PC posts ever. But all I can think about this month, in almost every store I shop at, is, How soon can Pepto-Bismol month be over? Am I a terrible person? I’m not pro-cancer, believe me. I am as sympathetic to those who suffer and to those who have lost loved ones as anyone. But I find myself strangely unmoved by Madison Avenue’s annual multi-million-dollar-effort to make me care… and give. “Oh, it’s National Breast Cancer Awareness month? What are these breasts of which you speak? And they get cancer? Who knew? Yes, I would like to buy that large cappuccino with the pink ribbon on it. Thank you for making me care!”
Believe me, I’m aware. I’m reeeeally aware. But I just can’t help but wonder if this is as much about finding a cure as it is about lining the pockets of corporate America and of Big Medicine. I guess I’m just not that pink. Instead, color me cynical.
Every October begins the media blitz known as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). The message is “Help us find a cure” and “Get Your Mammogram!” Little mention is made of avoiding the causes of cancer. Curiously, NBCAM was originally created by a drug company—now called AstraZeneca. In addition to producing cancer treatment drugs, AZ also profited off the sales of cancer-causing herbicides. But I digress. How about a little history:
The origin of the “ribbon” started in the 1990s, when 68-year-old Charlotte Haley began making peach ribbons by hand in her home. Her daughter, sister and grandmother all had breast cancer. She distributed thousands of ribbons with a message that read: “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion, only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon.”
As word spread about the Haley’s ribbon, executives from Estée Lauder and Self magazine asked her for permission to use it. Haley refused. She wanted nothing to do with them. She said they were too commercial. But they really wanted that ribbon so they lawyered up and were advised to come up with another color. They chose pink, because focus groups said it was ”soothing, comforting and healing.” Then, in stepped PR and marketing firms, eager to make a buck by creating more corporate sponsorships. Soon Haley’s grassroot peach ribbons were history, and the pink ribbon became the darling of corporate America. Companies use the pink ribbon to sell their products and boost their image with consumers as they boost their bottom lines. Meanwhile, breast cancer rates continue to rise every year.
How much money is raised? Well, Yoplait gives ten cents for every yogurt purchased. Uh, no. I’m sorry. They give a dime if you send back the foil lid thingy. That means, if you eat 3 yogurts a day for the entire month–and mail in all the lids–you will provide a whopping $9.30 toward cancer research. (Yoplait: But if we can get all of America to eat 3 yogurts a day…) Yoplait is made with milk from cows that have been injected with the synthetic recombinant bovine growth hormone (called rBGH or rBST). There are numerous health concerns surrounding rBGH, and breast cancer is one of them. Money is also raised through the sale of cosmetics that contain chemicals suspected of causing cancer, a golf tournament on a course sprayed with pesticides, one dollar for each mile you test-drive a polluting car, and by companies that market disease-inducing junk foods.
In just one year of funding (2007), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) spent $572.4 million on breast cancer research. That same year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent an additional $705 million. The Susan G. Komen for Cure Foundation had total revenues that year of nearly $162 million, and have invested nearly $1 billion in breast cancer since its founding in 1980. Those are just the big dogs. There are hundreds of organizations that raise funds in the name of breast cancer research, or the private companies that invest in and pursue new drugs and devices for use in diagnosis and treatment.
Make no mistake, breast cancer research and treatment is a multibillion-dollar industry. With all those billions of dollars in research over all these years, it almost makes you wonder whether or not a cure will ever be found. Or, if perhaps someone out there doesn’t want a cure to be found. Something tells me that if I discovered a tea bag that cost ten cents and cured cancer, I would be dead within the week. I know that in one of my recent posts I stated that I don’t believe in conspiracies because people talk. Here’s my exception–in cases where billions of dollars are at stake. And it’s not just breast cancer. As of 2009, Jerry Lewis’ telethons have raised $2.45 billion for muscular dystrophy. How’s that cure coming? Have we even cured a disease in this county since polio? Oh wait, we have. Erectile dysfunction. And we did that without getting someone like David Hasselhoff to hold a telethon. Again, ew.
So, why does breast cancer get all the attention? Oh yeah, ta-tas. I guess they will always be more exciting than lungs and livers and prostates; never mind the fact that lung cancer kills more women each year than breast cancer. When do lungs get a month? What about prostate and liver and skin cancers? Ew, I don’t want to know what color those ribbons would be.
Again, I’m not unsympathetic to those whose loved ones have been stricken. It breaks my heart. I just wonder if their grieving and misery isn’t being used and manipulated into selling a lot of crap and making someone(s) a lot of money. That cure should be coming any day now. Meanwhile, at least we can stimulate the economy a bit, eh?
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Posted on October 8, 2010, in Misc, Politics and tagged breast cancer, I'm a cold-hearted bastard, marketing, Pink, ribbons. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
I don’t think you are cynical at all…I think you’re seeing everything very clearly. I have thought for many years that there already is a cure for cancer but why use it when they make more money treating the disease than curing it. I also thought during the Steeler game, “why are they wearing pink? This is football!” and agree, when does skin, lung and liver get a pretty color and a parade! This post actually told me more than I knew before about the underhandedness of the whole thing and it saddens me even more to know the history behind the ribbon.
Good to know I’m not a total Neanderthal.
I agree with Wormy. As a woman, I find this month almost offensive. And when I say offensive, I mean, it’s only getting all this hype because it’s about boobs. I’ve seen more patients dying from lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and liver cancer. I know a lot of women who have/had breast cancer. It’s caught so quickly these days that most can be cured.
If you ask me, they need to put more money towards women who don’t have insurance to get checked. They need to put LESS money to advertising. And I still, to this day, don’t understand why oral cancer drugs like Arimidex is so dang expensive when it’s as common as a baby aspirin.
I run the Susan Koman race for the cure every year, but I don’t raise money for it. I run it to remember those who have died, suffered and have lost. Mostly, I run it to feel at one with my godmother who is suffering badly in Arizona. However – I know that all that money raised goes to throw another big party the next year. It makes me sad.
Yeah! My Blog Babes have got my back on this. As I said, I’ve got nothing against breasts. Always been a big fan. But let’s stop using them and all the pink ribbons to shill for the man, if you know what I mean.
We’ll say a prayer for your godmother in Arizona, tonight.
Ah. Reading a women’s opinion that doesn’t rip you a new one brought me a sign of relief. When I started reading, I kept thinking to myself, “not sure I would go there, Bagger.” But luckily it seems logic has prevailed. Are you being cynical? Perhaps, but you do have a point. The constant drive for crass commercialism has sucked the life right out of so many things. The ploy of social conscience is so frequently employed by companies today you cannot help but feel like everything good out there is constantly twisted to serve the all might buck. Ugh. Enough. I must go now, wash my brain with thoughts of kittens and rainbows. On second thought, how about scotch. Yes, scotch will do a better job.
I’m against the use of ribbons in general. I think they’re just a way to make people feel like they’re doing something when in most cases, they’re not.
Although I do like the bumper stickers that say “Save the Ta-Tas.”
Just read this link that gives even more insights into the flood of pink. But Bagger had it first! Way to go Bagger.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20101008/pinkwashing-pink-ribbon-101009/
I think the whole pink ribbon campaign is also so popular because some women will just buy things because they’re a limited-edition-breast-cancer-awareness pretty pink color. And who knows how much (if any) of those profits go toward research. Probably none.
I personally don’t know anyone who has suffered from breast cancer, but I’ve had other cancers affect my family (my aunt is a colon cancer survivor; my uncle and future father-in-law have survived prostate cancer). I wish there was more awareness for other types of cancer, but like you said, the ribbon colors wouldn’t be as pretty.
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