At the moment I'm writing this I'm sitting at my desk eating Yoplait yogurt. I normally eat Yoplait yogurt mid morning. Now after I eat it, I wash off the foil lid and put it in a plastic bag so that I can send it in and have Yoplait donate .10 cents to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. It sounds kind of silly, doesn't it? .10 cents isn't very much. However, Yoplait guarantees to donate at least $500,000 and up to $1.5 million to fight breast cancer. Now that's some serious money! Selfishly, I like to fantasize that maybe the money will be used to find a cure for Sandy or maybe even for a new medication that will prolong her life. Think about it, October colors used to be Orange and Black. Now it's PINK! Everywhere you look, corporations are using pink sales campaigns. Everything from pink M&M candies (Thank you Jayne, we enjoyed them!) to pink Campbell Soup cans line the supermarket shelves. It's called "Cause Marketing" and I have mixed feelings about it. These campaigns are designed to sell product. Breast cancer is a natural for "Cause Marketing" because it reaches women, who do most of the nation's shopping. It motivates consumers by appealing to the best in all of us. The first "Cause Marketing" campaign came in 1983 when I was working on my MBA. I was assigned a case study on it. American Express announced it would contribute money to restoring Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty based on how much it's consumers charged. Applications for the card spiked, card use peaked, and $1.7 million was raised. Some pink products are even sold at a higher price, so is it any wonder there is a backlash to some of these campaigns? Still, as long as contributions are substantial, should it make any difference? After all, money IS being donated that otherwise might not be? I just don't know?
I guess I'm seeing Red this morning instead of Pink because this morning after dropping Michelle off at Oak Mesa, another father came up to me and told me his wife has just been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I saw reflected in his eyes the same fear and shock I had in my eyes in April. The same confusion. The same questions. The same tears. What the hell is going on? I'm sick of PINK! (Yes, I know I'll be saving my lid tomorrow and walking at The City of Hope on Sunday morning, but enough is enough!) Enough talk about awareness! Enough talk about a cure! Enough pink! How about trying to find out why the cancer rate is skyrocketing? How about prevention, and finding out what's causing this stuff? There's even a pink ribbon on my plastic bottled water! Maybe the very products we are buying to raise money for a cure are the ones that are causing cancer in the first place? Food for thought..............
Jon
