Remember that ribbons merely accent the message

Are there too many cause-related ribbons and plastic bracelets today? Well, Queen's University professor Samantha King would say so. She has just published a new book that flies in the face of all the pink ribbons floating around this month. Pink Ribbon Inc.: The Politics of Philanthropy looks at the pink ribbon for breast cancer that is essentially a branding tool for big business.

According to King, and she's not the only one, shopping has become increasingly popular as a means to express support for a cause. Breast cancer is probably number one. I looked at the brochure for the Wolfville Run for the Cure and whopping 21 businesses and corporations have their names and logos attached.

You don't have to look very far to learn that the pink ribbon was originally a peach colour. About 15 years ago an American woman named Charlotte Haley began making peach-coloured ribbons in her dining room. Each set of five came with a tag indicating that: "The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion, only five per cent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon."

When Evelyn Lauder, senior corporate VP at Estee Lauder, wanted to use Haley's ribbon in Self magazine for its second annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue, Haley said no. She intuited, and rightly so, that the notion would become commercialized. So a team of lawyers suggested Lauder simply pick another colour.

King points out that many of the companies that jumped on the pink bandwagon turn out products that have been linked to triggers for breast cancer. Take parabens, for example, if you look at the cosmetic industry. At the same time, exact information on how much money the pink ribbon campaign brings in is hard to obtain.

That's why Breast Cancer Action in San Francisco started a Follow the Money Campaign to track corporate donors who practice "pink washing." The advocacy group urges consumers to "think before you pink." Their website is: thinkbeforeyoupink.org

It’s ironic, of course, that breast cancer rate statistics have actually gone up since the pink ribbon was created. In 1980, women had a one in 14 lifetime risk; now I'm told it’s one in seven. Mortality rates overall are down slightly, but not among Black and indigenous populations.

Cause-related marketing does appear to work. A two-year-old Cone Corporate Citizen study determined that more than 85 per cent of those surveyed were willing to switch brands if the other brand was associated with a cause, providing price and quality were comparable.

South of the border the breast cancer coalition is now tracking congressional opponents of research into the environmental causes of this epidemic. The group's spokeswoman Fran Visco has sniped that some members of Congress will wear ribbons, but won't vote for increased research funding.

Kathryn Gates of Port Williams says the pink ribbon invasion is starting to turn her off. "Five years ago, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer," she said, " there were hardly any pink ribbon products. And just the other day I parked beside a car with a pink ribbon bumper sticker, a pink ribbon box of Kleenex, a pink ribbon teddy bear in the back window and a pink ribbon dangling from the rearview mirror."

Gates thinks people are buying into the notion that "you can shop for a cure. And that's too bad, because being a super-consumer is actually not going to make the world a better, safer, healthier place (despite what George Bush and others like him, might have you believe)."

Gates is willing to concede that society has come a distance in terms of awareness. She can remember when breast cancer wasn't trendy, when women were ashamed of having the disease. "Let's move on," she says. "Let's promote awareness by focusing on things that make sense."

I couldn't agree more. And Gates, being a survivor, can articulate what some might see as political incorrectness. For my part, ribbons of any colour have lost their impact, but life and death causes still pack a punch.