Marketing the Pink Ribbon - A Study in Selling 'Awareness'

[MineralMan]

I just came back from spending about an hour clicking links on a Google search for Pink Ribbon Merchandise. What I discovered was pretty interesting. Over a million hits, but it's the first few pages that the ones I'm talking about appear. It seems like Pink Ribbon stuff is a growth industry. There are dozens upon dozens of sites selling all sorts of "Pink Ribbon Merchandise." Most of it is made in China, of course, and you can even find the manufacturers if you want to get into the business on a grand scale.

But, here's the funny thing: Very, very few of the sites make any claim that they donate any percentage at all of their sales to anyone. Some mention that they like to donate to the cause of breast cancer, but never say anything about to whom or how large those donations might be. They're selling "awareness" to their many customers. Just awareness. Almost none of the sites mention the Susan G. Komen organization. In fact, most of them mention no charitable organizations at all. It looks to me like most of them are interested only in the "Green Money" from "Pink Ribbons."

It's a big business, this "Pink Ribbon Awareness" business. But, from my hour of research, it appears as though the only people benefiting from it are the sellers of this flood of "Pink Ribbon" merchandise.

Caveat Emptor!

[Justice wanted]

1. I did a similar search a couple days ago. It almost seems like a scam to me. It is a scam nothing

more than using the guise of Charity to sell products. Komen is nothing more than a way for a corporation to get rich. I would love to see the bottom line. How much profit and how much to the charity THAN I want the true figures from the charity. How much actually goes to research and helping cancer victims and how much is used for "Overhead" Because if you are giving your CEO $500,000 as a salary than you have a problem.


As I said in another post I can understand CEO and key members getting paid for their work BUT no freakin way $500,000

[MineralMan]

3. Yup. The sites themselves are a scam of their own.

If they were actually donating, that would be on the first page of the site, in their About page, and in any FAQ document on the site. Nothing like it appears. So, my conclusion is that they're donating nothing - just selling cheap crap for a profit.

[behold a pale horse]

2. I found it highly disgusting

that my bank had their whole joint decked out in pink ribbons and related decorations. It's BULLSHIT and a giveaway to Big Pharma and these profiteers.

[MineralMan]

4. Go ask the branch manager of your bank how much they're

donating, and to whom. I'm betting you'll get a shocked look that you asked and a generic, "We donate to many charitable causes through our bank." Or, "That is handled by our corporate offices." The bottom line is that they're probably doing a "look-see" display, assuming their customers will think they're supporting that cause. If they do donate, it will be a token amount.

[behold a pale horse]

10. I never thought of registering a complaint! I think I will next time.

When is the "awareness" month? I think, though, that they're getting some $$$$ from it.

[jillan]

5. It reminds me of the Support Our Troops yellow ribbons. Did any of the money ever go to our troops?

Or to the manufactures that were in charge of slave labor to have them made?

[MineralMan]

6. I'm sure that was similar, but this is a larger effort

than that was. Unless the seller or manufacturer makes it very clear that some percentage of sales go to a specific charity, you can bet that no money is given at all...just taken.

[immoderate]

7. OTOH, must of this stuff is bought by people with too much money.

Last edited Sat Feb 4, 2012, 06:31 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't see a lot of poor folks buying a pink lawn mower, or camper. Maybe a bowling ball. But there have been pink bowling balls for decades.

This is a middle class scam. Apparently they sell "feel good-ness" to people with disposable income.

There must be better ways to do things. It's selling people things they don't need, when that money should be spent on services.

It's the ostrich plume of the new millennium.

--imm

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Doesn't SGK sue them if they market pink stuff for "awareness"?

I have intentionally avoided buying pink doo-dads (apart from the fact that I consider pink a color to be avoided if you are more than 6 years old) because even if it isn't an outright scam, it's a dumb feel-good fad. To be fair, SGK has done a good job with their "awareness" campaigns over the years but the whole thing has gotten ridiculous. Why would we not just quietly donate to PP or medical research organizations where our money will actually do something more useful than buy some tacky, useless pink bling?

[MineralMan]

9. I don't think so. It all depends on how things are worded, really.

I'm sure that organization has some stuff protected by trademarks and copyright, but a little change and you're good to go. Nobody can patent pink or own the rights to pink-colored ribbons or other things. There are workarounds to everything. Now, you can't use the Komen name or logo on products without their permission, but there's a wide range of what you can do. Komen may have a trademark or copyright on a certain Pantone color, but there are tons of pinks.

[MineralMan]

11. According to Wikipedia, the pink ribbon symbol is in the public domain in the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_ribbon

Intellectual property status

In most jurisdictions, the pink ribbon is considered public domain. However, in Canada, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation claims ownership of the ribbon as an official mark, a special form of trademark reserved for governmental and charitable organizations.[18]

There's a lot of interesting information in that Wikipedia article.

[Quantess]

12. Your money is better spent on lottery tickets.

At least, the proceeds go to public schools.