Paula’s thinking pink, are you? Regardless, you may be supporting pink cause marketing by default. Pink products are so ubiquitous – especially during breast cancer awareness month – that you might have to go out of your way to avoid pink ribbons when you purchase your favorite products.
One woman, Maria, told me that she does not believe in cause marketing. Instead, she chooses to support the cause in more direct ways, (i.e., being a member of a grass roots advocacy organization and reading about breast cancer issues from evidence-based sources). She also intentionally avoids products with the pink ribbon. Even so, one day Maria ended up participating in cause marketing by accident.
Maria wanted a new tea kettle, so she went to a local department store to buy one. She saw a red tea kettle on display from KitchenAid, which is a brand she likes. A sales person found a kettle in its original packaging, placed it in a shopping bag, and completed the sale. When Maria got home and took her new tea kettle out of the bag she noticed an inconspicuous pink ribbon on the box. She had inadvertently participated in pink cause marketing. Furious, she returned the kettle and purchased one from another brand.
Was this response really necessary? Would it have been so bad to keep the kettle and give a few cents to the cause through some cause marketing program? YES. Maria says, “Why trivialize and weaken the fight against breast cancer by diluting it with the marketing efforts of corporations. The fight can stand alone.” Maria believes conscientious consumers should investigate issues, causes, and organizations before lending support. She also advises (and reminds herself) that consumers need to read boxes and labels carefully to know what they are supporting.
The sea of pink during Awareness Month, and now throughout the year, is especially unsettling to Maria because she believes it makes light of a dire situation. Maria lost a close friend to breast cancer. Her friend had access to health insurance and the best doctors and facilities. She engaged in treatment, did what she was supposed to do, fought hard, and then died. It was not a cheerful experience. From Maria’s perspective pink ribbons hide this reality and profit from it at the same time. The tea kettle incident solidified how rampant but empty the pink ribbon had become.
Whether you want to support the cause through pink cause marketing or not, sometimes you have little choice. If you eat yogurt in October you may unwittingly give money indirectly to some some company or organization that purports to be in the interests of the cause. If you need a new tea kettle and you like KitchenAid, guess what? You’ll be giving money too, whether or not you know about or support the manner in which the corporation or the organization approaches breast cancer. Does American Airlines have the only nonstop flight to your next destination? You see where this is going. Personal choice is becoming less and less a part of the cause marketing equation. It is time for consumers to do what Maria did and stand up to face the pink.
