![Breast cancer: the pink ribbon campaign more commercial than preventive?](https://img.passeportsante.net/1000x526/2014-03-24/i41897-cancer-du-sein-la-campagne-du-ruban-rose-plus-commerciale-que-preventive.jpg)
April 15, 2011 – Annual ‘Pink Ribbon’ Campaign to Raise Money for Breast Cancer Cure Research Says Unhealthy Competition Among Charities, and Raises Hope in Women Who Have Breast Cancer .
This is what says researcher Samantha King, who recently gave a conference organized by Action cancer du sein Montréal.1, to talk about his book entitled Pink Ribbons, Inc: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy2.
In this book, published in 2006, Samantha King denounces the fact that breast cancer has “become a marketing industry oriented towards survival, rather than towards the prevention of the disease itself”. This book will also be the subject of a documentary that will be launched by the National Film Board (ONF) in the fall of 2011.
False hopes for affected women
Joined by phone, the professor of kinesiology and researcher in cultural policy of health, sport and the body at Queen’s University in Ontario, is very harsh on the campaign of the pink ribbon.
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Samantha king
“This campaign sinks into extreme optimism by suggesting that research will cure breast cancer, which is false: women affected still die from it,” she says.
Thus, she maintains that despite the funds raised over the years, the incidence of the disease has nevertheless increased. “In 1940, 1 in 22 women were at risk of developing breast cancer during her lifetime, while in 2004, this proportion reached 1 in 7.”
Samantha King acknowledges that there have been some advances in mortality, “but it has little to do with fundraising money.”
Even more, she says that, despite the sums raised, the treatments have changed little. “The treatment options are the same as 40 years ago, namely radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. These approaches are as toxic and powerful as ever. “
Breast cancer: a profitable cause?
But Samantha King is especially against the marketing which has made the fight against breast cancer commercial, to the point of distorting it.
“Why are there so many organizations competing for donations around the cause of breast cancer? Because it’s profitable for them, ”she drops.
According to her, the pink ribbon campaign has developed around a business plan “which is more concerned with gaining new market share than with disease prevention”.
This gives rise to strategies that she considers questionable.
“After the pink ribbons and bracelets, we now see pink replica handguns in the United States,” says Ms. King. And when you see that even the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain is following suit by making a certain donation for each barrel of chicken sold, you think you’re far from the mission you claim to be defending. “
This business model is also exported by other foundations working elsewhere in the world, including the Middle East.
“In Saudi Arabia, where the rate of breast cancer is among the lowest in the world, a culture of breast cancer risk is being created from scratch, thus creating false fear in women,” he adds. -she.
Put the money elsewhere
Samantha King also claims that breast cancer treatment research “is already sufficiently well funded, and the money raised should be redirected to fund studies to find risk factors to prevent the disease.”
At the same time, she denounces that foundations dedicated to the cause of breast cancer “have extremely expensive general operating costs, and that little money is really going to research”.
“The pink ribbon fundraising campaigns are very profitable for these foundations,” she concludes. Money should be spent on research that will make a difference, research that will uncover risk factors and not research into treatments, which is already very well funded. “
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
1. The conference was presented on April 14, 2011. To find out more about the organization Action cancer du sein Montréal: www.bcam.qc.ca/fr [consulté le 15 avril 2011].
2. To find out more about this book: www.upress.umn.edu/Books/K/king_pink.html [consulté le 15 avril 2011].
3. For more information on the pink ribbon campaign: www.cancerdusein.org [consulté le 15 avril 2011].