Lucy Activewear STOP Pinkwashing!

LilacBlue

Sat up last night writing to Lucy Activewear.  I'm a loyal wearer of Lucy perfect core pants, the most expensive workout pants I've ever bought and to me, the best I've ever worked out in because of compression and also found perfect for a Diep recovery - the hip-to-hip incision area.  I go on the Lucy site last night and see they now have "breast cancer awareness" (BCA) wear, claiming get ready for the race, Lucy outfits inspired by YOUR support, and there in lies the rub. I clicked to see the new clothing line, with pink ribbons motifs emblazoned on the front of four tops and pink shorts.  I read nothing of BCA support by Lucy Activewear or any percentage of BCA sales going to a nominated breast cancer charity.    

I found on the contact page an email address and wrote them asking:

Any company can put a pink ribbon on its products. The widely recognized pink ribbon symbol is not regulated by any agency and does not necessarily mean it effectively combats the breast cancer epidemic.  Can you tell me how much money from my purchase of Lucy BCA wear will go to support breast cancer programs?  Can you please tell me what breast cancer programs Lucy supports? 

Within a few hours this was the response:

I regret to inform you that we don't have an affiliation with any charities at this time including BCA, however we do hope to in the future.

I then sent this letter asking it to be passed to management:

Lucy Activewear Management,

The pink ribbon represents fear of breast cancer, hope for the future, and the charitable goodness of people and businesses who publicly support the breast cancer movement. It is intended to evoke solidarity with women who currently have breast cancer.

Breast cancer organizations use the pink ribbon to associate themselves with breast cancer, to promote breast cancer awareness, and to support fundraising. Some breast cancer-related organizations, such as Pink Ribbon International, use the pink ribbon as their primary symbol.

While specifically representing breast cancer awareness, the pink ribbon is also a symbol and a proxy of goodwill towards women in general. Buying, wearing, displaying, or sponsoring pink ribbons signals that the person or business cares about women. The pink ribbon is a marketing brand for businesses that allows them to promote themselves with women and identify themselves as being socially aware. Compared to other women's issues, promoting breast cancer awareness is politically safe.

Because the pink ribbon is not licensed by any corporation, it is more open to being abused by businesses that donate little or none of their revenue to breast cancer research. While companies such as Estée Lauder have distributed over 70 million pink ribbons, and donated over $25 million to breast cancer research, other companies have been discovered using the pink ribbon inappropriately—either by not donating their profits, or by using the pink ribbon on products that include ingredients which cause cancer.

The misuse of marketing campaigns by businesses using the pink ribbon on their products have been described as pinkwashing, which was coined by Breast Cancer Action. They use the term to highlight companies or products which feature a pink ribbon, without donating money to charity, or with no transparency regarding where the funds are going.

Lucy Activewear has confirmed to me, that it does not have any scheme in place to offer a percentage of sales of  "breast cancer awareness" clothing (BAC).  By not standing with women, such as myself, (a woman recovering from breast cancer), by  having no accountability or non-profit giving in place regarding BAC sales, Lucy Activewear are colluding to profit from breast cancer and conspiring in corporate hypocrisy.  I urge you to immediately put in place a process whereby an appropriate contribution of revenue from the sale of BCA promoted products, that is transferred quickly to breast cancer charities in need of funding, in a manner that is clearly visible to your customers. 

Please advise the action you intend to take.

Of course, no response.  I plan on sending a snail mail letter of the same today.

If you have read this far, thank you and any of you lovely women care to join me in getting Lucy Activewear to stop the pinkwashing?

Sido

Bravo Lilacblue! I have a blog (pinkgoose.wordpress.com) where pinkwashing is a big subject for me. May I copy your post and include it in my blog? I'd like to publicize Lucy's pinkwashing and I think your letter is brilliant! When you get a chance, PM me and let me know.

 Be well, Acacia 

coraleliz

so......a pink ribbon actually means nothing! I heard about the yogurt companies maxing out how much they would contribute but continuing to display pink ribbons on their products. I pretty immune to pink stuff. I would never wear anything with a pink ribbon because I want to move past BC & don't feel others need to know. I also hate the color pink.

LilacBlue

Sido, by all means, take anything I write and I'll come visit your blog!

 Coraleliz, l get what you are saying.   

geewhiz

Wow! Lilacblue...so breast cancer is just another marketing angle for them?! I do yoga about 5 days a week. I love their compression shorts...wearing them right now. I assure you, it's the last pair I will buy.

LilacBlue

Yup, they are assisting us to wear the proper (expensive) BCA clothing.  LIke the website says: our BCA collection -- celebrating you and your support for breast cancer awarness and should add, all for our profit!

Geewhiz, send a email and please let Lucy Activewear know why you are very unhappy.  The more mails they get, the greater the heat is turned up to get them going. To do the moral and right thing, because their customers are us, the one in eight workout too. 

 Coraleliz, I hear you and is there anything pink about having breast cancer?

kestrelgurl

I just posted part of your letter and some comments on my FB page. Will be interesting to see what my 576 friends think about it.....

Sido

I copied your entire post on my blog (http://pinkgoose.wordpress.com/) along with the email and mailing address for Lucy. I hope they are barraged with letters and that your story is picked up everywhere!

dlb823

I just took a peek at their website, and from there went to their Facebook page, where it seems people have started questioning their business ethics re. their BCA Pink Ribbon line.   Here's a link:  https://www.facebook.com/lucy

WoW!  I would love to know if this "oversight" (neglecting to give even a tiny % of profits from their pink merchandise to any bc cause) can be blamed on ignorance or simply greed.  I guess what they do about it will tell us a lot.   Deanna

PS ~ I just posted on their FB wall, too.  

Stormynyte

Added my own comment to their FB page. My vote goes to greed.

LilacBlue

Stormynyte -without a doubt - Greed!  It takes months to get a new line out, even as awful as this one that Lucy has been working on.  They knew what they were doing all along. 

Mahalo Sido -you are star! And thank you Kestrelgurl, you too are a star!

dlb823 Oh good, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. They can shift this.   Our campaign is going viral, and Lucy Activewear is going to regret not taking action quick enough.

 

LilacBlue

Sido, a friend of mine was quite taken with your blog and quoted it to flag-up pinkwashing on her blog:

http://louisey.wordpress.com/

LilacBlue

There has be quite a bit of emails flowing on the Lucy Facebook page and no response from Lucy Activewear.

This is the parent company to Lucy:

http://www.vfc.com/

They are proud of their social conscience and claim breast cancer support on this page and foundon this link:

http://www.vfc.com/corporate-responsibility/social/vf-in-the-community/in-our

VF Corp owns Lee Jeans:

Since 1996, Lee® Jeans has invited organizations nationwide to participate in Lee National Denim Day® by donning their denim and making a donation to the fight against breast cancer. Together, participants have raised more than $85 million to support critical and innovative medical research. Lee celebrated its 16th Denim Day in October 2011, together with celebrity ambassador Mike Rowe. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.denimday.com. <--- click this link

There is no Lucy Activewear charity set up within VF Corp. I think a letter to VF Corp is in order, to get them to respond.

kestrelgurl

I just posted this directly on Lucy's facebook page and it's already getting responses.

http://www.facebook.com/lucy/posts/10151166108064489?notif_t=feed_comment 

dlb823

Interesting.  Actually, Wrangler was the first denim company to have an active breast cancer support effort -- Tough Enough To Wear Pink -- which was started in 2011.  Personally, I've always assumed that Lee's program was copying Wrangler's very high profile one -- not something they came up because they care.

I'll look at your links later, Lilac, but I don't buy the parent company rationale.  If that was the case, they should have made that clear from the get-go, and their silence now (even though they appear to be in the midst of trade shows) speaks volumes, especially since they've been posting stuff about their appearances in NY & LA. 

FireKracker

I posted only  FEW WORDS cause im sooo angry.SHAME ON THEM.

I would have liked to post more but im too angry and i do have a dirty mouth..

dont want to get kicked off fb.

LilacBlue

I went and looked at all of VF Corp subsidiaries, looking for anything to do with breast cancer. 

VF Corp owned/sponsored:

Wrangler:
http://www.toughenoughtowearpink.com/

Lee:
http://www.denimday.com/

VF Corp owned pinkwashing:

Lucy (today added more to BCA line):
http://www.lucy.com/Breast-Cancer-Awareness/Breast_Cancer_Awareness_Collection,default,sc.html

Majestic Athletic
http://www.majesticathletic.com/NFL-Womens-Apparel-_-600909964_PG.html?searchType=3&search=breast+cancer+awareness

I sent a email to Majestic Athletic to see if anything is in place for BCA team shirts and I highly doubt it, as nothing stated as such on the site.  I'll update this status when I get a response.

LilacBlue

Deanna, VF Corp want's to be seen doing the right thing -- it's all positioning and marketing.  If you look at the BCA lines for Wrangler and Lee, they are both men and women and I think children's pink shirts too.  A wider net cast and big bang for the buck.  Lucy from what I gather, is not a top earner company and trying to find management to contact, no easy task.  I find past designers at Linkedin and have yet to find someone who presently works for Lucy. 

VF Corp makes 9 billion a year.  

Kestrelgurl and Grannydukes, excellent!  That FB page is almost all us woman asking about the pinkwashing and wanting an answer and the one in the lower left: thanks for posting this - I didn't know you had a Union Station location, and now it's easier than ever to boycott you for pinkwashing! 

Let's keep at it.  Sido, how are you?

dlb823

Lucy, I didn't realize that Wrangler is also a part of VF Corp.  Wrangler's Tough Enough To Wear Pink program has actually raised something like $12 million to support breast cancer charities, so they're definitely off the hook as far as I'm concerned.  And it sounds like Lee is too.  So it's just Lucy Activewear, and I don't think the generosity from any of their sister companies, including Wrangler, compensates for their huge "oversight."      Deanna

FireKracker

I keep posting on fb.different things every day...just little things that are makin people aware.I think most of my friend are gettin tired of me askin AND HOW MUCH IS GOIN FOR RESEARCH?HOW MUCH?????Not 1 of my friends would even dare to post anything cause they know im nuts with this thing.

Those money hungry bastards(ah I said it)Ya gonna go to hell for this!!!!

Im mad.real mad.Right now people are focusing on Sept.11th.Tomorrow is a day of mourning for me.I was there!!!But after tomorrow im gonna start again.

LilacBlue

Posted on Lucy FB:

To all of our followers, sorry to keep you waiting. We wanted to make sure we were thorough getting to the bottom of the Breast Cancer Awareness issue.

We're happy to note that this October, lucy is making a donation in support of The National Breast Cancer Foundation and we'll also be sponsoring teams from our stores participating in local events and races.

If you have any questions regarding this issue, please send us a message on facebook or contact customerservice@lucy.com. We are truly sorry for all of the confusion and truly support YOU!

-lucy

Progress! No mention of transparency, how much $ to be given, % and/or, if capped what amount.

FireKracker

We need more names...I dont know any but im sure good at bashing them.

There are lots of companies that give shit to research...just gotta find them and jump!!!!!

FireKracker

Nice goin Lucy!!!!!!Thanks

Kassylou

Thanks ladies for this post. I have never heard of pink washing and wonder about the giveaways I chose for work. Did any money go to research? Bet your butt it will this year.

KiwiKate

Following on..........why has Avon turned down Dr Tuohy of the Cleveland clinic twice to try and get funding to start clinical trials of is breast cancer vaccine??? mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

FireKracker

Bump.

LilacBlue

Lucy Activewear has no collection this year for "breast cancer awareness" (BCA) wear - pink ribbons motifs emblazoned on the front of tops and pink shorts. After the raking over last year they received for pinkwashing on their FB page and here on this thread, it's best they stopped trying to identify themselves as being socially aware.