Put a Lid on Yoplait

I think it is silly to spend 41 cents per ounce plus stationary to mail back those damn lids when they are only donating 10 cents each.  Just donate a big pile of money Yoplait and save us all the trouble!!  And I like their yogurt, but consider it a dessert, not a healthy food~ (with hormones added to boot).

That reminds me, I just went grocery shopping and saw Pink boxes of Wheat Thins and Honeymaid graham crackers.  I am not buying anything pink washed!!  Pretty soon, the stores will be a sea of pink.

Thanks for posting Laura.  I got a lot of insight from thinkbeforeyoupink.

I agree with Beesie.  A better approach would be to work on getting rBHG banned in the U-S.

I agree with getting the rBHG banned in the US.  Since bc and reading up on it, I ONLY use organic dairy products along with organic chicken and beef.  I do buy organic veggies when I can find them, not always lots out there.

Since we are on the subject ladies, perdue chickens are literally stuffed with hormones.  And most of the beef out there has bovine growth hormones added.

I am not a vegatarian, but I have enough hormones already!!!

p.s. I loathe the pink also.  Enough already.  I feel assaulted by my cancer status everywhere I go and it's really hard to enjoy October and get your mind off things when it's everywhere.

Laura, I don't need to be sold about the problem with rBGHs.  And the statement you quoted from thinkbeforeyoupink, "However, sometimes you have to start at the bottom and work your way up...if we're successful at getting Yoplait to stop using rBGH's, others will follow. It's a basic theory known as...competition." does make a lot of sense.  But I have a fundamental problem with their approach. 

What thinkbeforeyoupink do is look at companies that are involved with breast cancer causes and attack those who are in industries that are not fully environmentally safe.  So while every major dairy and yogurt manufacturer uses milk with rBGH, they pick on Yoplait, the company that's donated $10 million to breast cancer research.  While the cosmetics industry is full of companies that use potentially harmful ingredients in their products, they attack Estee Lauder, a company that to-date has raised $220 Million for breast cancer research and programs.  Everyone knows that the auto industry is anything but environmentally friendly.  thinkbeforeyoupink picks on Ford, who have been involved with Komen for 14 years and have so far donated $95 Million.  (Note that while Yoplait is the focus of the thinkbeforeyoupink campaign this year, in past years Estee Lauder and Ford have been at the front of their campaigns.)

Yes, we all want these industries to clean up their act, but doesn't it seem just a little bit counterproductive to run a campaign only against those companies in these industries who donate large sums of money to breast cancer research?  All the other companies in these industries - those that don't put a penny to breast cancer causes - get off scot-free.  Seems pretty dumb to me.

One of the goals of  Breast Cancer Action, the group behind thinkbeforeyoupink, is to get the power out of the hands of the pharmeuctical companies.  How better to do this than to have hundreds of millions of dollars of money donated to independent scientists?  That's where the money from Yoplait, Estee Lauder and Ford goes.  By focusing a negative campaign against these companies, BCA discourage these types of campaigns.  Is all this bad publicity worth it for Yoplait?  Maybe they'll decide it's not.  You'd better believe that they're talking about it in their boardroom now, questioning whether they should continue this program next year. 

So with the approach that they've taken, I don't feel that BCA is helping their cause, or ours.   I applaud Breast Cancer Action's goal - let's put pressure on industry to eliminate toxins in products and reduce the harmful environmental impact of their products - but attacking only those companies that support breast cancer research seems to me to be the wrong way to go about it. 

I do pick on Yoplait because they manipulate breast cancer FOR A PROFIT.  If they were really interested in breast cancer issues, they would donate without obligation and they would remove rBGH and market that instead of the lid crap. 

A quote from an informative article:

A cynic might note that if corporations really want to help in the fight against breast cancer, they could just make donations to the cause without forcing people to buy anything. To attract consumer attention, companies could advertise their donations on the product ("We gave money to X cause!"), or contribute money for every special label product sold, regardless of whether the label is sent back to the company. It is not as though they are unable to track sales.

Yoplait Yogurt, a subsidiary of General Mills, is most onerous in how they determine the amount they will donate to their cause, the Susan B. Komen Foundation, at the end of the year. As Sue D. complains on her blog, Red Stapler:

"I appreciate the fact that you want to help in the fight against breast cancer. The pink yogurt lids are very cute.

I will not, however, be saving the lids, rinsing them, collecting them, and sending them to you so you can donate a dime apiece to fighting cancer.

I figure I eat about 5 Yoplait yogurts a month. That's $6 per year if I collect lids for a whole year.

I know you're trying to be good corporate citizens, but can you just gimme a break and send the Susan G. Komen Foundation a check for $6 instead of waiting for my grubby, sour-milk-smelling lids?

I think you're just being petty if you can't agree to that."

It is more than pettiness, however. Companies like Yoplait rely on the fact that women will buy their yogurt to help the Susan B. Komen Foundation and then forget to send in their lids. In fact, Yoplait heavily promotes the "Save Lids to Save Lives" campaign in a thinly veiled effort to get women to buy more Yoplait, and to pressure their friends and family to do the same. "There's strength in numbers, so rally your friends to help," the website reads. "You want to tap into the people in your life as a resource. And we've got tools and tips to help you motivate them to collect more lids. It's our small way to thank you for your extra effort." Their tips for soaking your loved ones include organizing "just about any event you can come up with," including "a bake sale or an art show" and charging "pink Yoplait lids instead of cash." The tools include downloadable posters women can display to guilt co-workers, friends, and family into buying Yoplait and bringing in the lids for collection.

I am just sick of corporations exploiting breast cancer for profit.  Yoplait donates 10 cents for every pink yogurt lid mailed back to the company. It would take four lids just to cover the price of the stamp.  One person would have to eat 3 cups of yogurt a day for 4 months (and then collect and mail the lids) for Yoplait to donate $36.  I just mail my check to Komen directly.

Sorry to disappoint.

You know,pink packaging only just made it onto my radar on my most recent trip to the supermarket.  I never noticed it before. I am embarrassed to say that I did buy something not on the list because it did have the ribbon.  Is there a chart somewhere that says exactly how much $ per product is being sent ie the 10 cents per yoghurt cup? My store sells ind.size Yoplaits for 50 cents so I guess wholesale from the manufacturer to the store is somewhere around 30 cents.  That would be 33% of Yoplait's wholesale price (10/30) going to BC so that actually seems generous.

I don't eat yogurt but my family does.  Do all major dairy product makers use the rBGH?