Shopping ‘Pink’ to Help Breast Cancer Research? Buyer, Beware – And Ask Some Questions
Date: Monday, October 22, 2007
By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Pots and pans and small appliances in pink. Flowers by FTD. Special Campbell Soup labels. Products with the pink ribbon stamped on all say they support funding for breast cancer research.
But, as with any product one buys, the same rule applies: Caveat emptor – Let the buyer beware.
A number of businesses and organizations use the pink ribbon as a symbol to signify they either support the cause of breast cancer awareness or have joined in charitable efforts to raise money. Just because you buy one of their products, however, doesn’t mean that money is being passed along directly for breast cancer research.
So before you buy, do a little homework.
Products associated with a pink ribbon campaign should indicate clearly whether a portion of the proceeds will go toward research or if this is just an effort to make consumers aware of the breast cancer issue.
The Breast Cancer Action network’s “Think Before You Pink” campaign encourages shoppers to ask the following questions before buying a “pink” product:
- How much money from your purchase actually goes to breast cancer research?
- Is there a cap on the amount that will be donated? For example, if you buy a large number of a certain product, is there a maximum amount per purchase that will be donated now matter how many items you buy?
- How much money was spent marketing the product?
- How are the funds being raised?
- To which breast cancer organization does the money go, and what types of programs does it support?
- What is the company doing to assure its products are not contributing to the occurrence of breast cancer?
For example, the Breast Cancer Action’s Web site says those e-mails that encourage you to click on the National Breast Cancer Web site to provide women with free mammograms require more than one click to pay for the mammogram. It says it takes more like 40,000 clicks.
Further, it says every state has a Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program funded through the Centers for Disease Control that provides mammograms for poor women. So a better use for the money raised for mammograms, Breast Cancer Action suggests, might be helping to pay for treatment for poor women who are diagnosed with breast cancer. It also encourages donors to contact National Breast Cancer.org to recommend a policy change.
Despite the warnings, however, there are companies that have raised substantial amounts of money for breast cancer through their pink campaigns.
KitchenAid’s Cook for the Cure campaign has raised more than $5 million through its donation-with-purchase program of its appliances and aprons, fundraisers, auctions and assistance to grassroots efforts, including party kits for people who want to raise money to benefit cancer research. Proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Lenox donates money from its Gift of Knowledge collection of vases and bowls to www.breastcancer.org, while Better Homes & Gardens, Igloo, Dirt Devil and Dyson vacuum cleaners all send a portion of their proceeds from the sale of select products to the Komen foundation.
Last year, Campbell’s Soup donated 3.5 cents for each pink-labeled can of soup it sold, 7 million cans for a total of more than $24.5 million to the Komen foundation.
Some fundraisers are regional in nature.
In Denver, from October through the end of December, Champagne Taittinger will donate $1 for every bottle of its champagne sold in the 12-county area served by the Denver affiliate of the Komen foundation. Re/Max realty is hosting a Pink Tie Affair fundraiser at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.
Products can be found at the Komen Web site and at www.pinkribbonshop.com.
It may be difficult to pore through all the ads and recommendations about where to spend charitable dollars. It’s especially difficult for those who want to know that their money is going to help black women specifically.
While the kind of assistance needed varies from one organization to another, the African-American Breast Cancer Alliance provides links to a variety of black breast cancer groups, from the Sister Network Inc., a national black breast cancer survivor organization, to the Sister Study, which is seeking participants -- black women especially -- for a study that looks at potential environmental links to breast cancer.
It doesn’t hurt to buy pink, but a direct gift is the best way to ensure that more of the donation goes to the cause you want to support.
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