Take the Fright Out of Breast Cancer™

Sara536

• After all, don't we support the drug companies? I do worry that they have too much influence on doctors when it comes to accepting and prescribing their products what with the free professional development credits offered for listening to their sales pitches over catered gormet lunches.

Outfield

Such a nimble shift of the conversation.

Believing that BCO should fundraise is not the same same thing as condoning frankly offensive strategies.

marijen

Right you are Outfield. They shouldn't be using fundraising as an excuse for coming up with offensive strategies. Like I already said they should have asked first

lekker

In my opinion, the only thing that would "take the fright out of breast cancer" would be a CURE

marijen

Watch the video

http://pinktobersucks.com/trick-or-fright/

Lula73

Love Lita19901's suggestion of a new name for a Halloween theme BCO fundraiser...

Be afraid, be VERY afraid!!!

Meow13

Breast cancer has turned into a huge business. Fund raising is a joke and hurtful to the people who suffer from this disease. Making money off the patients and not hearing their concerns. Our dignity is lost when you sit around making cute fun catching awareness campaigns leading people to believe that they won't get cancer if the live "healthy" and get annual mammograms. Why can't you campaign for cures for a very serious deadly disease that you can't prevent getting. I don't think the problem is woman refusing mammograms because they are afraid of the procedure. Let's get money for a cure to a disease that is not caused by lifestyle or choices.

Meow13

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10...

Maybe reading this will get more rah rah fundraising fanatics to understand. Really suprised at moderators responses to us. It is all about attracting attention and raising money in the most undignified way possible.

I feel sick.

marijen

Good article Meow, and it was five years ago. Things have only gotten worse. Men with women with breast cancer don't find it sexy. I'll buythat. It should only be a serious subject. They should go back to the drawingboard. Did you see Traveltext's article at http://pinktobersucks.com/trick-or-fright/

Edited to correct link.

Traveltext

The article Trick or Fright: The Pinkwashing of Halloween is here: http://pinktobersucks.com/trick-or-fright/

Meow13

I just read the article, it does sum it up nicely.

momof2doxies

I am so disappointed in BCO. I need to go some where else for support.

Suburbs

Hi everyone. Selfishly, I hope no one rejects the organization due to a very ill conceived marketing campaign. I need everyone I have met here. They saved my life along with my medical team.

I am not five years old and I don't dress up for a Halloween. No slogan will ever take the fright out of breast cancer. Please. I live daily with a fear of mets. I have had a headache for a week. Try that for a scare.

We are not elementary school students. Go back to think pink live green. That is tolerable marketing.

Seriously? I have to add one more rant. How many times have BC patients been told not to drink or if you must limit to one no more than three times a week. Has anyone not read a thousand times that drinking was a risk factor for their breast cancer? Ok. Glad we have that cleared up. So, for fund raising, let's make sure we have an open bar. Nobody in treatment should partake. If you are out of treatment, swim at your own risk. If you don't have breast cancer, roll the dice and see what happens. Party on

208sandy

There are no words.......I already hate October....now on to Pink Christmas - what will you ruin next?????

HoneyBadger47

I don't like this idea at all. Others have already eloquently expressed my thoughts so I will not repeat it here.

I think AWARENESS and early detection is already well represented.

Why not move your event to the MBC date in October or to another day that month and change the name to "Show The Fright of Cancer" or "The Fight and the Fright of BC. You get the idea. I'm not creative. More people would probably go because they get to wear a costume twice. I get that you are trying to draw a bigger crowd with costumes. No kids. No trick or treat. Let people, including those with cancer, keep Halloween.

Include the stories that stage IV members so graciously share when BCO asks for them. Show day-to-day struggles and the true grit it takes. Show ALL stages. EDUCATE on the importance of screening AND on the fact that there is no cure. Show how this site offers support to all stages. Give them all a voice. Wouldn't this help not hurt donations?

I am not stage IV. I asked my surgeon about early detection. Answer: Early detection is great but once you have cancer, we are trying to keep it from killing you.

For me, the message is more that being afraid of BC does not prevent cancer from happening to you. Ignoring symptoms does not cure it and may decrease your options for treatment

The current branding is more like FEMA putting on an event for hurricane Harvey and Irm victims and saying "Flooding can be bad. Make sure you have flood insurance. For any of you that didn't have insurance or have been impacted impacted, piss off. You don't matter."

I may be way off base. I would love to know what others think if they disagree.

marijen

I like your FEMA analogy very much. Moving the date might make this thing salvagable. I'm hoping it dies this year from lack of interest and coordination. The wearing the costume twice I agree would be appealing to those who get into it. Is this darn thing nationwide?

Traveltext

Excellent shepkitty. Now try new words for 'I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas.'

Seriously, though, Halloween is the one to worry about. Obviously treats would include lots of pink candy, while a real scary trick would be a mastectomy scar flash. For extra effect, add ketchup. That's a cross between frightful and frightening. Perfect for this event.

nihahi

traveltext...don't forget to add some drains, abscessed incisions and swollen lymphedema limbs to the costume.

Btw...I have shared your article on my fb page.

You know, it's commonplace now to have public outcries of "take back Christmas" to show disgust with commercialization of that holiday. As someone who was originally diagnosed in October...I hate the pinkwashing...I WANT TO TAKE BACK OCTOBER!!!

Outfield

HoneyBadger, that is Perfect.

How about a "Take the suffering and loss out of floods!" silent auction and magic show?

Flood damage can be prevented! Buy more sandbags! Lots and lots of sandbags!

marijen

How about a white ghost costume front and back, with all the scary statistics printed on it, another one with all the different kinds of breast cancer, another with all the treatments, and another with all the medicines/chemicals used, follow-up with scary handbooks, because a flyer is just not enough! Just an idea.

nihahi

VLH...I am sorry to see that you deleted your post. I think it was admirable, given your financial circumstances to donate. No one has a right to judge if someone else gives "enough".

I do lots of community service and non-profit volunteer work. NO amount of time, money or donation is EVER regarded as "why bother".

Traveltext

This is not a BCO product, but one from a T-shirt company.

It really is a classic, and note the perfect positioning of the hands

nihahi

...just no words are adequate...

WorryWartSuzie

Ironically, I had my bilateral mastectomies on Halloween 2016, and spent the night in a surgical center - very relieved that the "monster" had been taken out and sent away to a lab. It is actually a day of celebration for me. It was the first time I had rested since my diagnosis.

I really don't think anyone is trying to diminish the extraordinary impact our diagnosis has on us - it's just another way to get people thinking. I waited too long to get a mammogram because of fear and if you read my profile, you'll see the price I paid for it. I admit I am a little "pink ribboned" out and hate the expression "Ta Ta's" used in the name of fundraising, but I don't think BC. Org has been that kind of an organization. I support anything you do because of what you have done for me.

Traveltext

That's a great coincidence for you WWS and I can see why you have a special affinity with the day. But, do you think it appropriate to latch on to a kids, fun day to promote bc awareness?

You're right in saying BCO has not been "that" kind of organization. I think most people here would like that to remain the situation.

Anonymous

We all hate this new BCO Halloween campaign. No question about it. BCO is just following the money. October was hijacked by the pink false prophets years ago. BCO is taking advantage of the already placed mass media hype. Business wise, it is a clever plan - saving advertising dollars and gaining corporate sponsors during this high profile marketing campaign. PEOPLE wise, it is insulting, inappropriate, demeaning...........

There are some wise suggestions being posted here. Mods, would you consider forming a group of consultants consisting of members who have offered their positive and constructive advice on this thread? You have given us a safe haven haven here. Let us help!

Meow ~ Yours is a perfect post and would very educational as newspaper letter to the editor . The link you provided in the following post is just as on point today as it was when first published. Thank you!

HoneyBadger ~ Excellent points! Though I suspect you may have at some time been a FEMA employee. You understand their rational a little too well

Outfield ~ you were in the cubicle next to Honeybadger, weren't you?

Suburbs ~ OMD.... The open bar! Lol ! How did we all miss that? The proverbial cherry on the top of this mountain of foolishness. A bunch of drunk people and the fatal mishaps that could possibly ensue would certainly cut the risk of breast cancer for those involved.

Mari ~ "A poet and don't know it" How kind of you! So much nicer than "whoever smelt it, dealt it". I Totally would wear your ghostie costume. That's some REALLY scary stuff there! I would want mine to have a zigzag scar on the head with blood and brains oozing out. Brain Metsers REPRESENT ! (drops mike)

The song I rewrote was Silver Bells. We can gather round our pink aluminum Breastmas Trees and sing this version of Jingle Bells....

Go to hell, Go to hell

Pinksters go away!

You don't care, you push your wares

while our cancers here to stay, hey!

Dashing to my Onc

one hundred miles away

fretting bout my scans

and what he'll have to say

will more mets light up

glowing oh so bright?

How i sit and worry

while fighting for my life!

So, Go to hell, Go to hell

Pinksters go away!

You don't care, you push your wares

while our cancers here to stay, hey!

Traveltext ~ I'm halfway through with Silent Night, your Pink Christmas will be next. Ahhh the classics, good ole Bing....... And gotta love that shirt, cradling the Breasts of Death. Or are the grim hands getting ready to lob those weapons of destruction into the unsuspecting masses - thus the warning to be aware?

---

Sara536

That t-shirt really does it for me. If that does not stop this "campaign" in it's tracks, then the people in charge are hopelessly dense. The damage is done and is out of control and will get worse. There is nothing more that we can do.

marijen

That t-shirt does it for me too. I feel demeaned and disgusted. I picture an army of skeletons. Sick people those pinky fundraisers. Pink Grinches

Anonymous

Sara ~ The disgusting shirt Is NOT FROM BCO. Traveltext was using it as an example. As bad as that shirt is, there are worse. Do a search for "breast cancer shirt" on your favorite search engine or online retailer........ you'll really be po'd then. It isn't right and it needs to be stopped.

BCO is not to blame. It's the idiots that buy all that crap. If those "awareness" items didn't sell, the manufacturers would stop making them.

Darn it Mari! You and Traveltext are gonna get me in trouble!

"I'm dreaming of some pink grinches........"

marijen

It's only the beginning shepkitty. I think the Grinches should be wearing bras, maybe sportsbras