In recent years, October has become the month dedicated to breast cancer awareness. As it coincides with football season, there is always at least one game dedicated to breast cancer awareness. The football game on Oct. 5 was Steinbrenner’s pink-out game.
Players, cheerleaders, and the crowd will adorn themselves in as much pink as possible in support of this cause during the game. However, it is hard to say just how effective, and genuine, the efforts are.
While there is nothing wrong with supporting pink-outs or wearing pink, it can be said that, while the original intent was to raise awareness to an issue a surprisingly high amount of Americans have experienced, the constant push and overzealous nature of some individuals participating may leave people to feel that the events are not genuine in nature. Additionally, due to the overwhelming amount of participation and the message becoming possibly skewed in the process, the majority of people tend to become desensitized to everything regarding the campaign and will both stop paying attention or care about any events related to the campaign.
When it comes to awareness, breast cancer and its nation-wide pink outs have nothing but coverage, especially during October. While it has helped organizations such as Susan G. Komen raise money to support further research into breast cancer, after a certain point, the returns such organizations receive from this intense awareness campaign, must diminish with time as the national movement slows down with the death of its popularity.
With pink out being such a widely celebrated event, there will be individuals that do not care about the actual cause behind the movement. Between large corporations that wish to profit off of campaigns such as this and sell merchandise and people who wish to wear bracelets with no care towards the breast cancer awareness movement and have no desire to finance research.
Susan G. Komen, though they are a non-profit organization that wishes to support breast cancer research financially, had been involved in past scandals. Susan G. Komen used most of its profits to benefit its top members and donated very little to actual breast cancer research. However, the point that will be focused on is that Susan G. Komen has partnered up with other organizations and corporations that, while they claim to support breast cancer awareness and research, some of these corporations are involved in manufacturing that deals with materials and practices that use “carcinogens and toxins thought to increase the risk of cancer,” according to “The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies.”
To reiterate, there is nothing wrong with supporting pink-outs, but people need to be aware that not everyone who participates may be doing so in support of breast cancer awareness, corporations may just be wishing to profit off of such movements, and the intensity of these movements may desensitize and turn-off those that may have considered participating.
Aliya Leary// Business Manager
