All this month NFL fans will see pink on the football field for Breast Cancer Awareness Month…. [W]e’re here to remind you that the NFL’s “support” for fighting breast cancer at best amounts to a misguided effort. At worst, it could be considered a straight-up scam. The money raised by the league does not reach the places that need it most. Advocacy group Breast Cancer Action has been fighting for more than a decade against pink through its “Think Before You Pink” campaign. They call what goes on each October “pinkwashing.” That’s when “a company or organization claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink product” and raising money for cancer charities. But the same company sells products that are carcinogenic or cause other health problems. These pinkwashing deals are just exchanges for public goodwill, wrote Karauna Jaggar, head of Think Before You Pink, in an op-ed last year. Recent examples include Susan G. Komen teaming up with oilfield services corporations, Baker Hughes or fried chicken purveyors KFC or makeup companies that sell products that contain carcinogens.
It’s one of the most gawd-awful fashion faux pas ever inflicted about american sports fans. During October, NFL teams are festooned in all manner of pink- gloves, hats, shoes, etc.- in the name of breast cancer awareness. It sounds great, right? A multi-billion dollar industry lending it’s visibility and reach to support a good cause. Except that what you and I think may be showing support and raising breast cancer awareness is really doing little of either. In fact, as reported by Business Insider in 2013, only 8.01% of the money from sales of NFL Breast Cancer Awareness merchandise goes to research efforts. An American Cancer Society spokesperson said the money donated by the NFL goes to awareness, education, and screening. While those are all good things, one has to wonder why the NFL is going to so much effort to raise money that doesn’t even go to research the malady they’re raising awareness for.
I don’t want to create the impression that the NFL’s efforts are useless, but when you evaluate the results, it’s difficult to escape the impression that for the league it’s more about self-promotion and self-aggrandizement than fighting cancer. Their intentions may be good, but the results generated don’t support them. With the involvement of the Komen Foundation, the NFL has partnered with an organization known for high overhead and a distressingly inefficient use of donations.
I should be careful to make it clear that I understand that not all aspects of the Komen Foundation are bloated and iefficient. My antipathy for Komen’s national organization and their inefficient and too often politically slanted charitable activities is warranted. As my wife (who’s a nurse practitioner in an oncology clinic) has pointed out to me, most of Komen’s state and local organizations actually do some very good work for cancer patients. That shouldn’t be ignored, and those chapters that efficiently and effectively carry out their mission are to be commended.
For my money, though, Komen has been far too political, bloated, and closely tied to businesses whose practices don’t speak to concern for cancer. Too often, it seems as if businesses seek ties with Komen in order to boost their profile and engage in “pinkwashing)”- using pink ribbons or a stated commitment to breast cancer awareness as a marketing tool. This is particularly disturbing when Komen is tied to companies whose products are suspected of causing cancer…or known to. One might reasonably ask why Komen’s pink ribbon is festooned on so many carcinogenic products…a questioned Komen has yet to adequately address.
The NFL’s involvement in what’s devolved into National Pinkwashing Month is characteristic of a business more concerned with style than substance. Players and fans might believe themselves to be supporting the search for a cure to breast cancer, and some of them may have very real and personal reasons for that support. While I certainly don’t want to denigrate their commitment to a very good cause, I can’t help but wonder if the NFL’s efforts on behalf of Komen are doing what the league would like us to believe they are.
I prefer my money and support go to groups fighting cancer who are more efficient, less hypocritical, and less political than Komen, whose inefficiency and bloated, expensive, and top-heavy management structure doesn’t speak to an organization committed to doing all it can to fight breast cancer.
Pink may make you feel good about your money going to a good cause, but I suspect that if you investigated what Komen is doing with your donation you might come to a far different conclusion. There are so many other groups doing very good work in the fight against cancer- and doing so efficiently and diligently. That’s why I refuse to donate to Komen; I want my money to go to the cause I want to support, and there are many groups who do it better, though without the visible marketing and hoopla.
For my part, the moral of the story is that Komen has evolved into an efficient, corrupt, morally bankrupt nonprofit business far more concerned with pinkwashing its bottom line its raison d’etre. All the emphasis on pink does is underline how completely off track Komen has traveled.
