Pink Ribbons are Boring. Do More.
Oh man. Here it comes the month when every fricking thing is pink or perfectly normal with a little pink ribbon on it. Blah. Ick. Puke. Here comes the pink ribbon month. Marketing blah blah. Pink ribbons mean nothing to me. Green dollars mean something to me.
I've seen the debate on the Facebook 'like' promotion for Breast Cancer Awareness. I've heard the breast cancer fighters pushing back. I've watched friends recover from breast cancer surgeries ranging from proud little tiny scars to wonking radical mastectomies. My paternal grandmother did not survive breast cancer; my aunt has barely scathed by. That said, this is not my pet project, my "I'm going to wear an unflattering t-shirt" level of passion (leave that for the Myelin Repair Foundation and ProMujer). To be honest, pink ribbons turn me off - it seems so marketing-y. The only way I knew it was Breast Cancer Awareness Month this year was when I saw hardcore NFL defenseman Jared Allen, wearing a pink sweatband, tackling a QB who was donning a pink chin strap on live TV.
It took NFL Sunday for me to notice awareness month, but I'm no fool. Breast cancer is a deadly b---- . The breast cancer numbers are staggering. Shocking, really. I'm always so moved by the women I've seen walking for days on-end with pink bras and ta-ta jokes hugging and laughing and talking with their flat-chested, bald-headed friends. That is some serious courage. Sometimes the subject of breast cancer makes me feel uncomfortable because I happily had my breasts reduced. I don't like boobs. But I don't want to have to lose them because of cancer, either.
Supporting Breast Cancer Awareness month used to be a stretch: I just couldn't give money to a "Precious Moments" figurine and make the connection between that stupid trinket and the balls-out-hair-on-fire research that this disease requires. But all that's changed. Women and marketers have gotten keen to the mutually beneficial attention to the Breast Cancer cause. For goodness sake, wineries are busting out massive donation campaigns this year. Now there's a donation I can get behind. And that's not all.
Did you know you could donate a mammogram by just clicking once? I thought it was total B.S. so I looked it up on Snopes and validated it. Yup, just a click donates a mammogram to a woman who cannot pay for one. Um. DUH. Before reading on, do that.
I met two incredible designers when I was at SocialLuxe this year - if you attended, you saw their cool greeting cards too. My favorite is featured on the top of this post: "Thinking of you as you b---- Slap cancer" made me smile and gave me a shot of anger too. Both worthwhile feelings, if you ask me. Buy these cards and 50% of all proceeds go to Young Survivors Coalition.
Into cupcakes - and good cupcakes? Sprinkles Cupcakes, arguably the best cupcakes I've ever eaten, gives 100% of proceeds of their pink cupcake to Breast Cancer research. Okay, that's cool. I can do that. And after I eat a dozen of those puppies (at $4 a pop), I'll have to use my Yummie Tummie to squeeze into my clothes. This company has one of my favorite products ever - the Survivor Tank which is designed for slip-in cups for mastectomy needs. Oh, and 100% of the proceeds go to the City of Hope Research Foundation. Even if you do have your boobs, it's a great product. I own one, I should know.
Then there's every other product under the sun from Purina Cat Chow to Donna Karan perfume that give proceeds to Breast Cancer research during the month of October. But do me a favor, don't bother buying any product just for the donation element. It's only a drop in the bucket. Ten percent of profits on your cat chow purchase is less than 25 cents. For goshsake, if you're going to donate to Breast Cancer research then save yourself some time and a crappy pink ribbon product and just donate directly to the Susan G.Komen fund by TEXTING the word: "KOMEN" to 90099 to donate $10. That's a lot more efficient than 10% off some pink water bottle you didn't want anyway.
