Get Out the 'Pinking' Shears and Cut The Pink Tape

Oct. 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Pink is quickly outpacing the traditional orange and black colors associated with the month of October, as merchants line up to purportedly support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But in reality, is it just an effort to extract their pink pound of flesh?

Jessica Heffner of the Middletown Journal in Ohio, wrote about “pinkwashing,” the practice of selling merchandise by exploiting the Breast Cancer cause. Everything from pistols with pink grips (Smith & Wesson's 9mm handgun, to Panera Bread's pink ribbon bagel. One year there was even a pink bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Seems everyone is jumping on the pink bandwagon... www.newstimes.com/news/article/Pinkwashing-for-breast-cancer-awareness-questioned-2213359.php#page-1

The advocacy group Breast Cancer Action is urging consumers to “Think Before You Pink.” BCA spokesperson Katrina Kahl suggests consumers question the amount of money being donated compared to the product price and marketing of the item. Make sure the merchandise actually supports breast cancer research programs before making a pink product purchase. Better yet, why not donate the full amount of the purchase as opposed to a percentage, which in most cases amounts to just pennies on the dollar?

If you truly want to ensure that your money is well spent, why not funnel it to Penn State College of Medicine who just reported on August 9, in the online journal Molecular Cancer, that their researchers have found a virus that kills human breast cancer cells in the laboratory. Researchers used a naturally occurring version of the adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) on three different breast cancer types, representing various stages of the disease. In the culture dishes in the laboratory, the virus destroys all the cancer cells within seven days. Their study showed that the AAV2 virus, as a single entity, targeted all different grades of breast cancer. The AAV2 does not affect healthy cells, and the researchers at Penn State have also found that AAV2 can kill cells derived from prostate cancer, methoselioma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. See articles at www.bit.ly/r4wNS4 and www.bit.ly/pOkBoC

Get your ‘pinking’ shears out and cut through the pink tape. Contribute directly to the research effort and quit wasting it on merchandise that’s diverting money away from funding a cure.


Photos by J. Werner
Photo collage by Collage

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Freelance reporter, writer, featured columnist, blogger, and public speaker, focusing primarily on aiding non-profit organizations in fulfilling their mission statements.