Lately everywhere I go I’m seeing pink! Pink ribbons to be more precise. That’s because October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is a bittersweet pill to swallow for those of us who have been affected by this disease –either directly or indirectly (myself included). As someone who is committed to providing safer and healthier choices in beauty and personal care, and has actively supported local lobbying efforts of the Breast Cancer Fund and The Safe Cosmetics Campaign, I have a slightly different perspective on this issue.
On the one hand, it makes me glad to see so much support and resources being rallied and devoted to fighting this awful disease. On the other hand I’m concerned about companies (especially cosmetics companies) exploiting this issue to present themselves as caring and compassionate while they continue to profit from making products that might actually be contributing to the problem. You’ve heard of the term Greenwashing? Well now we have Pinkwashing!
In her book Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, author Stacey Malkan devotes a whole chapter to this phenomenon where she rightly points out that instead of creating a revolution in the way companies think about what it’s really going to take to reduce breast cancer, instead what they have created is a revolution in shopping. Many companies have jumped on the pink ribbon bandwagon but how many of them are truly really concerned with the problem versus using it as a convenient way to sell more products? How much of the money that they raise from the sales of pink ribbon products actually goes to the cause and more importantly, what are these companies doing to ensure that their products don’t contribute to the problem?
For me, the dilemma is not so much about the hypocrisy of companies that say one thing and do another as it is about how this behavior keeps the focus and the conversation stuck in the wrong place, and our complacency around it doesn’t inspire true leadership from companies who are in a position to make a real difference.
Malkan quotes Jeanne Rizzo, the executive director of the Breast Cancer Fund, who specifically calls out cosmetics giants Estee Lauder, Revlon, and Avon for their complete lack of leadership on the issue: “When new knowledge comes to you that your product contains problematic ingredients, if you were authentic in your support for breast cancer, you would be vigilant in addressing that.” Instead, these pink-ribbon companies continue to defend their use of hazardous and questionable chemicals while spending heavily to fight any form of regulation that would require them to either disclose their use of such ingredients or eliminate them altogether!
Next time you’re tempted to make a pink ribbon purchase or to support a pink ribbon company, do yourself a favor and visit the Think Before You Pink web site at http://www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org and learn what kinds of questions to ask to make sure that the organization or product is really committed to the cause. If you think you may have been pink-washed, share your story here so others can benefit from it. Thanks!
