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October 24, 2006
Think Before You Pink: Will Pink Ribbons Solve Breast Cancer?
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Cause Marketing
October is breast cancer awareness month--in case you haven't noticed the pink ribbons on everything from breath mints to bagels, from soup to Serta mattresses. But not everyone is as excited about the cavalcade of pink products offering undisclosed percentages of the purchase price as a donation to fight breast cancer.
"If you think you're going to solve the problem by buying Yoplait, you've got another thing coming," says Barbara Brenner of Breast Cancer Action, an organization that started Think Before You Pink, an online campaign to educate consumers. The campaign points out that few products divulge how much of each purchase is going to fight breast cancer, and often the cause "to fight breast cancer" is vague and doesn't cite specific organizations.
The charge is that the partnerships aren't always as favorable as they seem, sometimes with only a penny on the dollar going to charity. So in the end companies are getting boatloads of goodwill for supporting the cause against breast cancer, but the support doesn't match the hype. Instead of supporting causes, companies can be seen as leaching causes.
It's the danger of doing cause marketing wrong and consumers will have to decide whether or not buying pink will make a difference, . While the ideal for cause marketing is that everybody wins, in the end the cause is king. The cause has to win. Otherwise it's just selling out.
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