Pinkwashing:

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A month of courage, compassion, and heavy marketing.

Among all cancer advocacies, breast cancer tops the list. Pink ribbons, athletic gear, accessories, and clothing riddle the nation in support of the cause, or as some critics say, to market their products.

The Susan G. Komen foundation partnered with the fracking company Baker Hughes to distribute 1,000 pink drill bits for excavating oil. “The pink bits serve as a reminder of the importance of supporting research, treatment, screening, and education to help find the cures for this disease, which claims a life every 60 seconds,” said a statement on the company’s website. 

Yet critics are noting the irony in this decision, as these same drill bits are the reason carcinogenic chemicals (cancer-causing chemicals) are released from the ground. 

Another irony brought up by critics comes with Mike’s Hard Lemonade brand, who has marketed their pink lemonade flavored beverage in support of awareness, despite medical research showing moderate alcohol consumption offers a direct link to breast cancer. Critics such as Dwight Burlingame, associate executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, claim that charity has nothing to do with it. “These businesses are promoting their product,” said Burlingame. 

Plymouth State University professor Robin DeRosa has also started to take notice of companies getting involved solely on their own agendas. “Activists have recently been critical of ‘pinkwashing,’ which is when companies or organizations exploit the breast cancer cause in order to bring attention to their own products or agendas,” said DeRosa. “Equally as damaging can be breast cancer fundraisers that use tactics that minimize or mock the very real pain that those who suffer through the disease have to endure.” 

There are, however, a few organizations who are trying to do it right. The Student Nursing Association (SNA) of PSU held a recent tabling known as the Pink Hair Event at which pamphlets from the local non-profit advocacy group, the New Hampshire Breast Cancer Coalition, were given out. The pamphlets included information on the importance of early detection, self-examinations, and mammograms.

“There was information for people to take and review as well as things to look at while at our event,” said SNA president Tracy Fillion. Fillion, who helped organize the event, said she was inspired by the battles fought with breast cancer by a close friend as well as her sister, who was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer in 2013. “If our organization can just do a little something to show our support in our community and state then we have made our contribution to this fight,” said Fillion. SNA was able to raise a total of $418.03, which Fillion said is being donated to the local New Hampshire Breast Cancer Coalition.

However, with October so heavily focused around the pink ribbon, it’s tempting for corporations to throw their hat into the ring in their own attempt to draw crowds. Due to the risk of self-centered business practice, genuine organizations are finding it difficult to distinguish themselves from the masses. 

DeRosa offered her own advice regarding this issue. “I think it’s important for anyone who wants to raise money for breast cancer services to think about these two questions before planning an event: Does this event inappropriately use cancer to raise money or awareness for any other cause? Is this event sensitive to the survivors and patients who will encounter it?” 

Many who are sensitive to the cause have spoken out about the romantic portrayal of the breast cancer community in media. Dr. Meagan Shedd, assistant professor of early childhood studies at PSU who was diagnosed with the disease back in April of this year, has taken issue with the terminology tossed around by friends and organizations. “I’m not ‘fighting,’ this is not ‘a battle,’ it’s an inconvenience,” she said. “I’m the same person, it’s just a diagnosis.” The difficulty here has long resided in the marketability of the struggle for life. What remains unmentioned, Shedd said, is the struggle for identity. Breast cancer is not a women’s issue, nor a death sentence. However, the marketability of breasts lends itself to such popular slogans as, “I love boobies,” “save second base,” and the American Cancer Society’s tag line, “It’s Okay to Look at Our Chests.” 

Sexuality may be a way to grab attention, but its offensiveness takes a strike at the very heart of the community in which it claims to support. The attention has also taken away the funding and focus from other serious diseases and cancers. “Who knows the color ribbon of [these] cancers? Why aren’t we talking about them?” said Shedd. 

Pink marketing has gone beyond products too. Sports teams have been wearing pink gear for years, however concern has been raised whether or not this effort is sincere or simply a marketing ploy by the leagues and associations. 

“Many women have trouble with the NFL sporting pink ribbons when so many NFL players have a poor track record in how they treat women,” said PSU associate professor of history, Dr. Rebecca Noel. “It’s a problem that money goes to ‘awareness’ when it’s not clear that helps anyone, and it goes to a narrow kind of research leaving other critical medical issues unexplored.”

Noel said most awareness is simply a scare tactic rather than an efficient way of educating women. “Girls and women have been trained to fear that we’re all likely to get breast cancer.” According to cancer.gov, 87.6 percent of women in the United States will never develop breast cancer, with the highest percentage of likelihood falling at age 70 with 3.82 percent. 

Advocacy has been welcome by many, but Noel says there are more pressing issues for women, such as heart disease. Still, “if people want to do something,” she said, “they could research what the risk factors of breast cancer really are, and help teach others about that, always emphasizing what we can do to keep ourselves healthy rather than simply transmitting fear.” 

Many breast cancer patients feel disconnected to the theme of pink, having lost their identities in the sea of advertising. The community cry is for October to not be a month for marketing, but instead for awareness, courage, and compassion.