As we know October has been designated a National Breast Cancer Awareness month. This campaign has been growing rapidly for years now. There are walks, runs, protest, concerts, you name it and it has worn the label “for the cure” on it somehow. Even the entire NFL is suited up in pink shoes, pink chin straps, and ribbons for the month of October. My question to all of this is; where is the money going? Surely this campaign raises billions of dollars in October alone, not to mention the ongoing proceeds throughout the rest of the year. I’ve taken a brief look at some of the programs and this is what I’ve found so far.
The most shocking came from an article on Zeneca ,http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7840. This company is responsible for coining Breast Cancer Awareness month. Zeneca is a bioscience company that raises almost half of its proceeds from the sale of pesticides and toxic chemicals. They are the developers of Tamoxifen,a known carcinogen which can actually cause breast cancer. Then there are the pink ribbons that are seen everywhere, however, the shocking news is that a very small portion of those proceeds are given to the research of breast cancer, in some cases as little as 50 cents of a $14.95 purchase. These findings have sparked the launching of “Think before you Pink” a response to the pink ribbon campaign. My last one came from the “I Love Boobies” bracelets which have raised public attention because of their non-support of the medical research on breast cancer. I feel 50/50 about this one, while some of the proceeds are used for salaries, re-investment into other products, etc, the companies donations support awareness, education, and prevention, which to me is money well spent. Of course the medical industry really dislike this because it is more natural based. Kudos for booby bracelets!!
I am not insinuating that you should not give, but merely saying that you may want to find out where your dollars are going. You may even want to write a check directly to the type of research that you support and that way you cut out the middle mans chances of ill spending of your funds. What do you think of the money raised for breast cancer?
Is it doing as much as it should?
Should it be tracked?