Just donate the money for heaven's sake!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 11:20PM 
If you've been wondering what's with all the pink ribbons on food packaging, purses & clothing, and even buildings lately, it's because October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In case there is one person left on this earth who hasn't been touched by cancer and in case they need a reminder that cancer is still around and still killing people.
Don't get me wrong - I don't have a problem with pink ribbons everywhere. But I'll admit I don't really 'get' the whole 'awareness' thing. I mean, maybe seeing pink everywhere is supposed to make you more inclined to donate money to the cause? Or maybe you just go ahead and donate so when you're asked at the store the next day *again*, you can say "Already did - thanks!" And yes, I know it takes money to fund research to find a cure. And there are a LOT of diseases out there and each and every one is a passionate cause for somebody. No one knows better than I do that heart disease and cancer are ugly and the world would be a better place without them.
But what DOES bug me are the companies who jump on the 'fight <insert disease>' bandwagon as a way to get you to buy their product.
Right now there are lots and lots of products in the grocery store touting their altruistic policies because they 'support cancer research'. Great. Go for it. Plaster pink ribbons all over your yogurt packages. But if you say you're going to donate $1 for every box top, label, UPC code we send you, that irritates me. If you want to donate a portion of your profit to some charitable cause, yay for you. I may even buy your product over something similar because of that. But then you want me to send you the label before you'll make the donation?? Why?? I mean, you've already made your money - I bought the thing. So what's the reasoning behind making me cut/tear/clean a portion of the trash and send it to you?? That doesn't earn you any more money - in fact, it cuts into MY disposable income by having to buy an envelope & stamp(s) to send it to you. Granted, 50 cents is not going to make or break me, but hey - it's the principle of the thing!
The only thing I can think of that it will do for you is that you'll then have my address to add to your mailing list. Great. Now you're going to start sending me unsolicitated solicitations in the mail (although I wouldn't be surprised if there is some small print on that label saying that if I send it to you so you make the donation I'm also giving you permission to add me to some datebase). Yeah, I'm jaded.
It just strikes me as deceitful and self-serving for companies to use this tact. It's probably not going to stop me from buying the particular yogurt that I want, but it's annoying and I don't like being used.
Reader Comments (2)
Seems you are not alone in noting the pink ribbon overload.
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/pink-overload-are-companies-taking-advantage-of-breast-cancer-awareness-month-525251/
Not to mention that lots of money is somehow funneled from the Komen foundation to Planned Parenthood.