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Each October, breast cancer awareness month provides an annual focus for pink ribbon themed campaigns-many of which are backed by commercial partners eager to be seen to support a worthy cause.
The pink ribbon began as a grassroots movement, with survivors wearing ribbons to show solidarity with each other. 1 But it was quickly appropriated by commercial businesses such as Estée Lauder and breast cancer organisations, led by the US based Susan G Komen Foundation, to show support ranging from financial donations to goodwill. 2
The amount of cash raised with commercial backing can be substantial. America's Breast Cancer Research Foundation, founded by former Estée Lauder senior vice president Evelyn Lauder, has raised £207m ($320m; â,¬280m) in donations since 1993. Asda's Tickled Pink campaign, meanwhile, has raised £44m for Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now since 1996. 3
However, commercial involvement in breast cancer campaigning has drawn criticism from organisations such as US group Breast Cancer Action (BCA), which works to raise awareness of the more questionable cause related marketing activities by businesses, known as "pinkwashing."
BCA, which runs an initiative called Think Before You Pink, is critical of the inappropriateness of some commercial partnerships-one engineering firm produced pink drill bits for fracking, for example 4 -and lack of transparency about how much money companies actually donate. And it condemns an overemphasis in campaign messaging on breast cancer screening.
Oversimplified messages
"Pink ribbon has come to be about selling products. To...