Have you ever gone into a store and seen products that support the fight against breast cancer? The soothing pink hues of the colored merchandise that supports this case never fail to catch the eyes of shoppers. Most of the stuff you can buy to support breast cancer awareness helps raise money for breast cancer research and awareness programs; the companies that make products that support cancer awareness donate portions of the profits they make from selling them. However, not all of these pink products are equal.
"Pinkwashing" is the term used to describe the practices of some companies that suck in the concern of consumers in order to boost their profits. While these companies may make and sell products that claim to support the fight against the breast cancer, they may donate very little or perhaps even none of the profit they make from selling these products to further cancer research.
This is just wrong. The companies that are practicing "Pinkwashing" are taking advantage of consumers who are genuienly concerned about breast cancer. The money that could be going to actually support breast cancer research and awareness programs is instead going into the hands of businesses that use deception to rake in massive profits. There must be something done to stop the companies with no real intent to support the fight against breast cancer from making merchandise that falsely claims to do so.
6 comments:
I agree that it's wrong for companies to take advantage of people by taking advantage of the breast cancer movement to make profits. But I don't think much can be done to stop these companies. I think it's up to the consumer to make sure that the products they buy are from companies that are reputable and honorable. It's also probably just better to donate directly to foundations; we don't need to buy from companies just because they say they support cancer awareness.
Tony's absolutely right. And he totally just said what I was going to say, but he submitted it 20 minutes before me.
I once read an article about this same issue, and it's very corrupt for companies to take advantage of the ignorant public who may be trying to do a good thing by also thinking about supporting cancer research while buying goods from the store. It's a great idea to do that because people can still give money to the foundation without having to go out of their way.
I think that the best solution to this is (1) to have articles like this pointing out the subtleties of the packaging and the corruption of other companies to promote their products and (2) to be aware and look carefully on the labels of products that say they support the Susan G. Komen foundation. If we are always paranoid about our own food products, we can glance one more place on the box so that we know that we're buying a certain item to support the right cause.
the way i see it, any kind of advertising or fundraising for a general cause is a good thing. the important thing is that the word is being spread on the issue.
it's like those youtube artists with fan publicity vs. hater publicity. fans will go out of their way to support a rapper while haters will go out of their way put the rapper down. either way. people are talking about it and the awareness is what's important. cauz it brings to attention to those who actually are fundraising and need money to help fund research.
there's a bias on what kinds of caner disease (skin, breast, stomach, brain, lymphoma.. etc). since when was the last time people heard about foundations for liver cancer or stomach cancer? there's more money going into research for skin cancer and breast cancer because the public is aware of it.
advertising, whether out to make a profit or not, helps spread the word.
raymond lim
Although sad I must agree that it's a fact most companies don't care much for the charity organizations which they claim to be partners with. But the problem with directly donating to the foundations as Tony suggested is that its troublesome for most people. They have to go online, research the address and rules and write out a check. Though some may say that if people truly cared about the cause they wouldn't mind 5 or 10 minutes of extra work. But as a consumer for falls for Pinkwashing myself, I think I can speak for the majority who care about breast cancer awareness, research and prevention yet we don't care enough, or rather we don't think about it enough to put in those few minutes at home to donate to the charities. When the product was something that shoppers originally wanted to purchase anyways or something that caught their eye, it's just more convenient.
Going back to the main point of the article, I do agree with Michael that something should be done to stop corrupt corporations from taking advantage of innocent people. For example the FTC currently has rules for the growing "occupation" of vloggers. The FTC states that if vloggers review products they must disclose whether the products are sent to them by the company, if they paid for it with their own money, etc. In regards to partnering with charity or non profit organizations, the government should set guidelines and regulations such as requiring disclosure of profit actually being donated.
I agree with most of the posters on this blog, that companies should not take advantage of customers by pretending to sell things that benefit a cause when they do not. I think (and I'm not sure, so maybe companies are legally supposed to do this) that the companies should be legally required to state that none of the proceeds go to support breast cancer awareness so that customers do not get duped.
I disagree with Tony on one point however, that it's up to the consumer to make sure the products are reputable. I think the companies should be forced to reveal whether or not they are actually donating to the cause, and how much they are donating, or else customers will just assume that they are donating. I think the companies should be held responsible and I don't think they should latch on to this "fad" as a way to make money. People are so into this "wear pink" sensation because they genuinely care, and I really don't think companies should be exploiting that.
-Alice Bebbington
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