Think Before Your Pink Campaign Emphasizes Company Accountability

Supporting breast cancer research and prevention is good business and public relations, and every year more companies offer a pink product that provides "a portion of this sale goes to support [insert breast cancer cause here]" label. As such, the Breast Cancer Action is sponsoring its sixth "Think Before You Pink" campaign to encourage consumers to think about the product they are buying, how the money is being raised, and where it is going.

Think Before You Pink coincides with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and calls for a greater level of transparency and accountability by companies that take part in breast cancer fundraising. The campaign lauds support of breast cancer organization, but also urges consumers to call for companies to contribute to the cause, not cause marketing.

"These pink washing companies are trying to have it both ways. If they care as deeply as they say they do about women's lives, they'll clean up their products," says Breast Cancer Action Executive Director Barbara A. Brenner in the campaign press release. The 2007 Think Before You Pink year's focus is on which companies are engaging in pink ribbon marketing while manufacturing products that are contributing to the breast cancer epidemic.

Pink wash is a term created by the Breast Cancer Action organization that is defined as a person or company that purports to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon campaign, but manufactures products that are linked to the disease.

To determine if a product is "pink washed," the Breast Cancer Alliance recommends that consumers should ask the following six questions:

1. How much from your purchase actually goes toward breast cancer?

2. What is the maximum amount that will be donated?

3. How much money was spent marketing the product?

4. How are the funds being raised?

5. To what breast cancer organization does the money go, and what types of programs does it support?

6. What is the company doing to assure its products are not contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?