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This October, Think Before You Pink

Katherine Grace
6 min readSep 30, 2022

Pinkwashing doesn’t help cure cancer

Photo by Olya Kobruseva: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-pink-ribbon-on-a-calendar-7805650/

Pinkwashing is capitalism at its worst.

Companies are not even required to donate any amount, much less a sustainable amount, to breast cancer research or treatments — no matter how many pink ribbons they paste all over their products.
Pinkwashing takes a terrifying and, too often, life-ending diagnosis and reduces it to dollars and cents.

Now, you might be thinking, what harm does it do to pinkwash products, and why should I care?

The focus of pinkwashing products is on generating profits. NOT on helping actual people with breast cancer and can be triggering for those who have experienced breast cancer.

Pinkwashing doesn’t raise awareness of what our risks are or what might be things we can do to lower those risks — the point is merely to ‘raise awareness’ while raising profits.

And, seriously, aren’t we all aware breast cancer is a thing by now anyway?!?

It’s time to stop lining the pockets of people who don’t care and start saving lives. So this October, instead of buying something with a pink ribbon on it, consider donating directly to an organization that actually funds research on prevention and treatment.

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