Pink: Not just for Pepto Bismol anymore

That even makes donuts look unappetizing.

I for many months have been ticked over the pink stuff all around.  As i became more informed I became down right angry.  I have a constant reminder of BC the instant I look down.  I didnt need a reminder when I had clothes on and wasnt even thinking about it.  There was a time when it was in every thought of my mind as I was awake.  Then it dawned on me.  Why did the pink bother me so much.  Why was I so mad at the color.  It wasnt the color its self.  Its because Im so damn pissed I had cancer, thats what I was so pissed at.  As each day goes by I heal physically and I also have to heal mentally as well.  I know things will never be the same again but I cant live in hate and try to heal and move on to a life in a different way.

I found this on FaceBook - some company made a Barbie-like doll they're calling the Pink Glove Dance Nurse!!!  Ugh!!  http://www.scrubs123.com/medline-dolls-deb-pink-glove-dance-nurse.html

This is a duplicate post.  I put it in another thread about the pinking of October... but it's so, um, special, that I can't resist posting it here, too.

This is the picture Estee Lauder is using to advertise their 2011 Breast Cancer Awareness campaign.  I am not kidding -- it's on this Estee Lauder BCA web page:  http://www.bcacampaign.com/us/index.shtml

I showed the pic to my dh, and he asked, "What was it they're advertising???"

otter

Otter, reading your post had me on the floor, because, I had the same reaction your DH did. (And my DH did when I showed it to him.) 

I'm just relieved this year that I'm past the anger some of these used to generate and I can just laugh about it, or at least roll my eyes. 

So, Otter and Rock, thanks for starting this thread.  I think I measured my healing by it.  I have some appts coming up, and, pretty sure I've bought myself some scans being ordered, and I can still laugh at this thread.  It feels like a major victory

I got an auto reply that they were out of the office, for the Lauder ad email (complaint) I sent.   

Some days I embrace the Pink, other days I want nothing to do with it.   The mirror reminds me every day, so I donot need to be reminded.   The color pink is one of my favorites, and I look good in it.   Wearing it does not take away from the seriousness of finding a cure, MY opinion.   But buying something just because it is pink and says BC -- no.    

I hope this weekend is sunny, warm and that each of you have no pain, side effects and can enjoy time with family and friends.   Hugs and Blessings, Nancy 

GramE you said it perfectly.  I like pink, always been one of my favorite colors (well more of a mauve but that is splitting hairs).  Buying because it is pink just leaves me cold.  You are so right

Sorry for the crossposting, but this, which I just posted on another  -oh yuck, irt's pink! thread will be of interest here:

This link has already been posted, but I really recommend reading the Marie Claire article on pink ribbon excesses. I just have to highlight some snippets along with the link. It is entitled The Bug Business of Breast Cancer (Sept. 2011)

Here are more excerpts than I should publish, but if it gets more people to read - it's for a cause. It even suggests we may be wrong when we think any pink has to do some good (my italics and bold):

Though breast cancer researchers and advocates perpetually plead for more money, the disease is, in fact, awash in it. Last year, the National Institutes of Health, the nation's top agency for health-related research, allocated $763 million to the study of breast cancer, more than double what it committed to any other cancer.
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Breast cancer has made a lot of people very wealthy. The fact is, thousands of people earn a handsome living extending their proverbial pink tin cups, baiting their benefactors with the promise of a cure, as if one were realistically in sight. They divert press, volunteers, and public interest away from other, more legitimate organizations, to say nothing of the money they raise, which, despite the best intentions of donors, doesn't always go where it's supposed to.
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Last June, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed suit against the Coalition Against Breast Cancer, calling it a "sham charity" that for 15 years "served as a personal piggy bank" for the group's insiders. According to the complaint, founder Andrew Smith; his girlfriend, Debra Koppelman; and their associates pilfered almost all of the $9.1 million raised in the past five years alone. Other eye-opening claims:
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"There is a lot of deception that goes on with breast cancer groups," says Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a Chicago-based nonprofit watchdog group. One problem, he says, is that breast cancer charities are often run by well-meaning but inexperienced survivors or relatives who duplicate the efforts of established organizations. They use donor dollars to print their own educational brochures, though they certainly exist elsewhere; they organize events to promote awareness - "Skydive to End Breast Cancer!" - then blow too much of their funds getting these events off the ground. There's no requirement of a college degree or business experience to run a charity. You don't even need a clean legal record. (The treasurer for the Coalition Against Breast Cancer was a Long Island housepainter with several warrants for unpaid child support.) Even the names of many charities are designed to fool donors into believing they are bigger and more impressive than they are. Case in point: Though its moniker suggests it presides over a vast network, The Breast Cancer Charities of America is a tiny, three-woman outfit operating just outside Houston that banked $2 million in 2009, mostly through telemarketers.
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The Breast Cancer Society, based in Mesa, Arizona, has made an art form of this kind of creative accounting. Founded in 2007 by James T. Reynolds II, now 37, the organization provides critically ill breast cancer patients across the country with cash grants to pay for everything from groceries to medical bills, Reynolds says. In 2009 (the most recent year for which tax records are available), the BCS claims it raised $50 million in contributions, the bulk of which went to supplying medicines to hospitals in Third World countries like Guatemala and Ethiopia, ostensibly for the treatment of breast cancer. (Reynolds says he has visited only three of the eight hospitals that purportedly received these medicines.) Press him on his group's finances and he admits that, in fact, BCS raised just $15 million in cash donations in 2009. The other $35 million represented his estimate of medications that the BCS accepted as gifts or bought at a major discount but then listed on its books as having much higher values. For example, BCS reported that it sent $8.8 million worth of goods to hospitals in East Asia. "I'd have to look it up, but it probably cost us maybe $40,000 to procure and distribute that," Reynolds concedes in a phone interview.
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For anyone worried about where their donations are going, here's a useful tip: Skip the pink-ribbon merchandise. Because no one really owns the rights to what has become the universal symbol of breast cancer (though Susan G. Komen for the Cure trademarked its own version), peddling the logo has become a massive racket, overrun by slick profiteers exploiting the public's naive assumption that all pink purchases help the cause. Often they don't. Tchotchke vendor Oriental Trading sells an extensive line of pink-ribbon party favors, including "Find the cure" car magnets and "I wear pink in honor of" buttons. Save for proceeds from its pink rubber duckies, part of a sponsorship deal with Komen, not a penny of Oriental Trading's breast cancer novelties goes to breast cancer. Three years ago, veteran nurse Christina McCall, the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, launched Pink Ribbon Marketplace, an online store based in Germantown, Tennessee, with a vast array of pink-hued goodies. "As a woman and the mother of three daughters, it quickly became apparent that creating a business that gives back to breast cancer victims and their families was important to me," she writes on her store's website. "I personally chose our local American Cancer Society and Reach to Recovery Program to be the receipient [sic] of funds we donate." But when asked about those donations, McCall fesses up that, in fact, no monies have ever gone to the American Cancer Society or its breast-cancer-targeted Reach to Recovery program.
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Google "pink ribbon," and the first listing to pop up is pinkribbon.com, the glossy website of Pink Ribbon International, an Amsterdam-based outfit owned by Dutch businessman Walter Scheffrahn. The site serves up an eclectic mix of breast cancer information and merchandise, including a yard sign ($14.99) and barbecue apron ($16.99) embossed with the site's logo. Over the past seven years, Scheffrahn has shelled out 200,000 euro ($288,000) to buy the rights to the enviable pinkribbon.com domain name in roughly 40 countries. "There's not a real global awareness of the pink ribbon," says Scheffrahn. "We want to take it to the next stage." But despite its official-looking packaging, his site is riddled with misleading information, including a statement that Scheffrahn's company donates "10 percent of its company capacity and funds" to charity. Exactly how much is that? Scheffrahn says it refers to manpower, not actual dollars. Scheffrahn also claims that 90 percent of donations made to breast cancer through his websites go to charity. (Ten percent is reserved for overhead, he says.) But this, as it turns out, is also a bit fuzzy. Scheffrahn says his entire Web network generated "something like $20,000" by the end of last year.

Full Link:
http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/breast-cancer-business-scams-3

I thought the pink mania was getting ridiculous even before I got breast cancer.  In fact one of my first comments was "Oh crap, I got the pink disease ...  I hate pink." 

The merchandising has only gotten worse in the last 5 years.  Now that I know that there are real needs out there not being met ... and how much of the funds raised go just to perpetuating more merchandising instead of to research ... and how much of the stuff with pink ribbons on it is not even donating any money ... I'm even more disgusted by the immense misuse of resources that a lot of this is.

I don't think it has anything to do with being angry about my breast cancer.  It's more that I don't like seeing breast cancer (or any disease) being used as just another marketing campaign.    

The pink bubble wrap just about put me over the edge.



I'm so grateful to know I'm not the only Pink Fan NOT!!!! Here's a good book to read: Pink Ribbon Blues. Also great article in today's New York Times business section about the pinking of America.

Hmmm... Maybe time for a topless run for reality?

Topless Run for Fun. Anyone interested?

My favorite recent protest sign said, "down with zippers!" Gotta love the humor.



"Got tits?"

My husband and I were talking about all of the pink slogans, and the Breast Fest 2011 that was recently held at a local bar.

I don't understand how and why some of these people think it's okay for something like Breast Fest.

Would a slogan like, "get down and dirty at the Colon Cancer Carnival" or a "Testicular Ball" to raise awareness for testicular cancer be accepted?