I will preface my following comments by saying that I fully support victims and loved-ones of Breast cancer, and also fully support and contribute to the cause of breast cancer research and treatment. It is one of many terrible diseases and I hope we can find a cure soon.
That said, all this pink Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) campaign business - and that is what it is: business - is way out of balance and off the rails.
First of all, again not to be insensitive to the millions affected by the disease, but there are other diseases with not nearly as much notoriety because they don't have the marketing machine behind them that breast cancer does, that affect many more people. That said, I don't meant to say breast cancer doesn't need attention. It's just way out of proportion to other very real and deadly diseases affecting many more millions of people.
BCA is not nearly the problem it's made out to be, or that it used to be years ago. Or at least, it's certainly way down on the totem pole of health awareness issues that need attention. I think we've made most folks aware of breast cancer, and the steps needed to help prevent e.g. self-examination, mammograms, etc. Not saying there isn't more work to be done there, but I think any American would admit they've been exposed to the marketing, somewhere. I think the pink campaign has largely achieved it's goals of awareness and de-stigmatization. I think the NFL dedicating an entire MONTH each year to displaying BCA branding all over uniforms, the fields, and broadcasts has probably alone done an awful lot to achieve the goal of awareness. If football can dedicate a whole month to breast cancer, why don't they do a single week for heart disease? Ever compared the death rates of the two diseases? Heart disease alone kills five times - five times! - more women each year than breast cancer does. Not to mention how many men it kills. I'd like to see more balance by the sports leagues on disease awareness, rather than just jumping on a bandwagon.
But the biggest problem I have with it all is addressed
in the linked article, and that is that very little of the money raised through all proliferation of pink products sold go toward researching a cure, or treatment.
Again, there is nothing to argue with about the the goal of making sure all at risk people are aware of how they can protect themselves from breast cancer, and any money raised that goes toward research and treatment is a good thing. But all the attention given to the BCA pink campaign by corporations is disproportionate to the number of affected people as compared to other diseases, and it needs to be reigned in because it's jumped the shark in terms of what it's become, which is a brilliant marketing tactic for for-profit companies, not just the American Cancer Society.
Feel free to flame if you need to.
