Pink Darth Vader Helmet
(because even though Darth Vader is evil, he still supports the fight against Breast Cancer)
Today, Web Watch received a flood of emails from friends and family regarding the Susan G. Komen Foundation pulling their financial contributions to Planned Parenthood.
There is even a petition asking Susan G Komen to restore their relationship with Planned Parenthood.
That there is controversy surrounding what the Susan G Komen Foundation does with their money, and that there is a brouhaha surrounding the marketing of the pink ribbon to raise money for breast cancer research, is nothing new. The people who are commenting on the petition are acting all shocked and surprised that Such A Thing Is Going On, when Web Watch has told you about this for years.
Back in 2009, we wrote about how companies are using the pink ribbon for profit, with one company seeing a 74% increase in sales of pink products vs non-pink items.
We also wrote about Jeanne Sather, who started the BOYCOTT OCTOBER campaign, encouraging people to stop buying pink ribbon marketed items, and donate directly to the charities themselves.
And in 2011, Web Watch mentioned how women are more likely to purchase items, like Yoplait yogurt, that are tied to charitable giving.
In other words, that Komen is a large marketing machine should not be news to anyone. While we’re pleased that this information is finally making it into the mainstream (whether you support what Komen did or are outraged that it happened) nobody should be treating this event as something that suddenly happened in 2012.