"Pinkwashing"

Deborah DeKoff
Oct 1, 2019
2 min read

Pinkwashing: supporting the breast cancer cause or promoting a pink ribbon product while producing, manufacturing, and/or selling products linked to the disease. In recent years the definition has expanded to include any company or organization that exploits breast cancer for profit or public relations motivations.

In the words of Gayle Sulik:

"While awareness campaigns stimulate interest in breast cancer as a trendy social cause, they do little to promote knowledge about breast cancer. The commercialization of breast cancer has contributed a lighthearted approach to awareness and advocacy that very often centers on fun-filled activities in the name of breast cancer awareness. This trivializes breast cancer and limits our ability to comprehend what it’s really like to face the disease, live with medical uncertainty, and accept the difficult realities of risk, recurrence, treatment, and even death.

I am angry...

I'm not seeing red, I'm seeing PINK! As a breast cancer survivor, I have come to despise Pinktober. Everywhere I look, I see companies trying to profit on a disease that kills.

THINK BEFORE YOU PINK!

Here are just a few ways companies have Pinkwashed:

- Pink Campbell's Soup cans

- Pink buckets of fried chicken (Yum Brands)

- Pink lipstick (Estee Lauder) - Pink yogurt (yoplait lids) - Pink lipstick (Avon)

I urge you to:

1. Check out this site: Charity Navigator

Ask, what % of the money goes to research?

While there, check out the Metavivor

2. Donate directly to a research team at a real cancer research hospital. How many hands does the money need to go through to get to where you want it to go? What if you can donate directly to research to eradicate the cancer you choose to put your dollars on?

I donate directly to the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Research Team: Dr. Alana Welm.

Read about Dr. Welm here.