I used to love October. The changing of the seasons, the foliage in New England, the warm autumn days and cool nights. Sitting by the fireplace and seeing wonderful shades of oranges, reds, and yellows on the trees outside. But these days, this month is all about pink.
For awhile, I thought I stood alone in my frustration with October's handover to breast cancer awareness and all things pink. I'm realizing there's more to the pink backlash than I first assumed. Check out some incredible articles on breast cancer awareness month, pink ribbons, and marketing ploys gone wrong.
Those pink products you assume are helping cancer research? Not so fast... - TwinCities.com by Allison Kaplan
Great infromation -- "The "Think Before You Pink" campaign encourages consumers to ask questions before buying something with a pink ribbon: How much money from the purchase goes toward the cause? Where does it go? Is there a cap on donations? What is the company doing to make sure its products aren't actually contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?"
Pink Ribbon Fatigue - New York Times by Barron H. Lerner, M.D.
Great quote from this article --- "It is great to celebrate one’s survivorship from breast cancer, but it would be better not to have to be a survivor in the first place."
Thinking Pink Hasn't Helped Find Causes of Breast Cancer - US News and World Report by Deborah Kotz
I think this quote from this article says it all: "Breast cancer surgeon Susan Love expressed these same negative sentiments to me. She recently published the 20th-anniversary edition of her best-selling Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book. It's much thicker than it used to be, due to bulked-up chapters with new information on the science of breast cancer and the wider assortment of treatments. But, she tells me, the chapters on causes and prevention of the disease haven't changed that much over the past two decades. "There's frustration out there that we don't know more," she says. "We're wearing pink, walking and running to raise money for research, God knows we're aware, and yet we still don't really have a clue what causes this disease.""
If Dr. Susan Love is frustrated -- everyone should be frustrated. Think before you Pink!
How do we see past the pink fatigue and make sure the message of awareness, education, and treatment gets out to the people who need it most? Let me know your thoughts!
