Pink: Not just for Pepto Bismol anymore

lovemygarden - thanks for the info on the book.  i just googled it, got to her site and found her article regarding the Virtual Breast Cancer on Second Life....  OMG!!  now i think i've seen it all...

And THIS is how you rock the pink!!!  (Just out today)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo0i_75O8-w

Yes, Estee Lauder and the BCRF are the same organization. It was originally named the Evelyn Lauder Breast Cancer Research Foundation. At some point they just dropped the "Evelyn Lauder" part. The foundation funds (in part) the Evelyn Lauder Breast Cancer Center at Sloan Kettering.

The origin of the pink ribbon culture itself is connected with Lauder. According to "Pink Ribbon Blues", the first pink item was pink visors given to people who ran in the first Komen Race for the Cure in 1990. "By the fall of 1991, the foundation [Komen] had given pink ribbons to every participant in its NY City race. However, the ribbon was not introduced as the official symbol for breast cancer awareness until the first National Breast Cancer Awareness Month [Pinktober!] in 1992. Evelyn Lauder of the Estee Lauder Companies.... joined forces with then-editor of Self magazine to collaborate on a national breast cancer awareness campaign."

So Estee Lauder has always been a big player in the whole "Awareness industry". 

Oh and about that logo, the reason it looks like that is because the pink ribbon (itself) is "a generic symbol in the public domain, which cannot be owned or controlled by a single entity" (again from Pink Ribbon Blues). But as breast cancer became a "brand", Komen wanted to have its own copyrighted image; that's why it changed its name from The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to "Susan G Komen for the Cure" in 2007 ("Cure" is much better marketing!) Along with the name change came the logo that they now use, called the "running ribbon"... the one that looks like the ribbon has a head floating above it. And just like Komen has its own copyrighted BC ribbon, so also is the logo you posted specific to the Estee Lauder Companies (it was designed by her daughter-in-law). It can be used by any of the companies under the Estee Lauder 'umbrella' (which depending on what source you read, total either 18 or 27) in connection with "awareness campaigns".

Btw, according to Wiki the brand companies owned by Lauder are the "first and largest corporate supporter" of the (Lauder) Breast Cancer Research Foundation. A number of them are cosmetics brands: Aramis, Bumble & Bumble, Clinique, Estee Lauder of course, La Mer, MAC Cosmetics, Origins, and others. Ironically, their "Prescriptives" line which was supposedly hypoallergenic and so forth, was discontinued... guess it sounded too 'medical', LOL!  

Yep... keep those cash registers ringing by selling cosmetics loaded with pthalates, parabens, and other possibly-nasty stuff and then throw some of the profits into cancer research ("Psst, hey guys, just make sure you don't discover that our ingredients are a major cause of this .. okay?")

Lowrider - This should work to deflate it:

granny - Forget the hammer...use the ax! lol I love that motto...they are a bunch of criminals who should be imprisoned. Are they the ones who used women as guniea pigs with HRT? Wouldn't doubt it.

OK - I'll confess, too.  I have a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Team called Friends in Pink Helping Friends - this is our 3rd year participating in the Metro Orlando Event. We raise money for the American Cancer Society, which goes for research, education, service and advocacy.  I was the chair this year of the Mission Integration Committee (education and advocacy) and I am proud of the funds that Strides raises.each year to fund research and to advocate for more research dollars from government.  So far, over 1/2 a million raised this year in Orlando, Florida!!

And I happen to like pink (it looks good on me, lol) but am very careful which items I purchase in the name of breast cancer.

Hugs,

Karen

Hi Grannydukes,

There is one paid staff person in Orlando, plus a volunteer committee of 60 of us, which put together an event raising over $500,000.00 with more still coming in (matching corporate gifts, etc.).  I have heard that some organizations are staff-heavy, but ACS is definitely not.  And an event this large does need a staff member to be our partner, as she is able to get things done that would be harder for the volunteers.

Hugs,

Karen

YAY FOR ACS....Thanks for posting that info.Karen.We need to hear more of the good stuff here.

God bless you for all you have done for the sistas.

huggggggggggggs

K

TODAY IS NOVEMBER!!!! Let's do the happy dance!

I know it isn't October anymore, and I am glad of that.  But, I just have to add one more pink comment.  A page or two back, someone posted a pic of a dozen eggs, each stamped with a pink ribbon.  After making the appropriate gagging sounds, I set it aside and thought no more about it.

... until last week, when I was at the grocery store.  When I opened a carton of my favorite brand of eggs ("Eggland's Best") to be sure there were no broken ones, I found this (pic borrowed from another website, 'cause I didn't have a camera):

Yes, it was EB eggs that had been stamped with a pink-for-BC ribbon.  Worse yet, that was all the store had for EB eggs -- every single carton was the "BC awareness" version.

But, I've figured it out.  Chickens have breasts, right?  (I know this because I see "chicken breasts" for sale at the grocery store all the time.)  This EB pink ribbon campaign was to promote BC awareness for the chickens!  (Must be because of all those hormones they're feeding them, eh?)

otter

Thanks otter for the chuckle. Here I thought that the chickens were laying the eggs that way.

Okay, I just came in from 3 hours of fall yard cleanup (my back and arms will hate me later) and among the things that I removed from my front yard were -- remember, Sunday was Halloween! --- not one but THREE empty BC-pink-promo egg cartons! 

I deliberately avoided buying any pinkified eggs for the entire month of October but the "ghosts" of the darn things ended up "haunting" me in my own front yard, LOL!

otter, love the Chicken Breast Theory (I buy that brand of eggs too, btw, although I can't quite figure out how/why they are "lower in fat" and "higher in omega 3s" than other eggs; makes no sense, unless of course all the other brands feed their chickens meat byproducts -- ewwww) !

My contribution for this year.  This is wrong on so many levels.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/09/breast-cancer-awareness-app.html 

Video, 99 words for boobs !!!!

http://funkjelly.com/2009/07/21/99-words-for-boobs/ 

I do not have windows, so I cannot post pictures, but there are some amazing "sights" out there...