Puma Project Pink, Feel Free Not to Repeat in 2013

Today is the last day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2012 and I devote this final pink ribbon post to Project Pink, from Puma, the shoe and apparel company.

Project Pink is a contest of the sort made popular American Express’s Member’s Project and Pepsi Refresh. That is, causes nominate themselves to receive a large cash prize then rally their supporters to vote them through the rounds, usually via social media.

Beginning on July 6, 2012, Puma accepted nominations for a single prize worth as much as $120,000. The donation was based on the profits from the sale of Project Pink merchandise, mainly branded shorts and t-shirts, and by the number of tweets with a promotional hashtag. Promotion extensions included a celebrity soccer match with actor/singer Ashley Tisdale.

Project Pink had a verification phase in September and the voting began on Sept 24 and ended on October 5, 2012. Puma announced the winner earlier this month; the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation.

I never really liked these kinds of cause marketing efforts, notwithstanding the fact that they can generate crazy social media exposure for the causes involved. But as they keep cropping up, I’ve begun to actively dislike them.

First off, I loathe the idea of pitting charities against each other for a public vote. Every adult knows that Komen and the pink ribbon charities compete fiercely against each other for supporters, racers, sponsors, etc. But there’s especially naked about the way that competition takes place in these kinds of contests.

People would like to believe that charities and causes can work together to improve society and the world. You and I know that’s sometimes naïve, but that doesn’t mean we have to put the competition between causes in such sharp relief. 

Second, these contests have had a real problem with people gaming them, notably Pepsi Refresh.

Third, the phase where the public votes can turn into the most desperate kind of beg-a-thon. Charities send out ever more fraught communications to their supporters trying to get out the vote.

Fourth, like all cause marketing, these contests favor causes that know how to position themselves before the public and have existing large networks of supporters.

It ends up being a very public demonstration of the ‘Matthew Effect.’ The Matthew Effect is drawn from Matthew 25:29 in the New Testament: “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” In application it means that the rich tend to get richer and the poor tend to get poorer. Think about it. Two pink ribbon causes both have good, if different ideas, about how to spend the Project Pink money. Only one of the organizations also has a database of 150,000 names and the capability of easily reaching out to them. Which pink ribbon charity is likely to get more votes?

I genuinely hope Project Pink didn’t meet Puma’s goals so that they don’t feel compelled to repeat it.

A Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing Partner Cool Enough for Oakley

Oakley is a really cool brand of sunglasses worn by very cool people. Oakley’s celebrity endorsers include Olympians Oscar Pistorius, Lindsay Vonn and Shaun White. Oakley’s headquarters in Foothill Ranch, California is cool in a Blade Runner kinda way. After he sold the company to Italy’s Luxottica Group, Oakley’s founder, Jim Jannard, went on to start RED Digital Camera, which makes really cool digital cameras used by cool movie-makers. Cool comes off Oakley like snow comes off Shaun White’s snowboard at the top of the halfpipe.

So when Oakley decided to do a pair of pink sunglasses, what pink ribbon charity did they choose to partner with?

Oakley chose the Young Survival Coalition, whose tagline is, “young women facing breast cancer together.”

As I’ve mentioned in this space before, the bell curve of breast cancer diagnoses hovers over women in their fifties and sixties. But, of course, many younger women get their breast cancer diagnosis in their twenties and thirties, including triple negative breast cancer.

Even if we don’t know the exact age range of the bell curve, most of us instinctively understand that it doesn’t fall over women in their twenties and thirties. Consequently, the resources developed for the bulk of women battling breast cancer may not suit younger women. Hence, the Young Survival Coalition. The YSC exists to reach out to young women with breast cancer with information, connections, outreach, and support from specialists and peers.

Oakley, says the YSC’s website, is their biggest corporate sponsor, having generated more than $1 million for the cause since the start of their partnership. Oakley runs a straightforward transactional cause marketing effort, selling 11 sunglasses/goggles and 11 apparel items in benefit of YSC. The sunglasses/goggles generate a $20 donation and the apparel items a donation of 10% of the sale price. In the UK, certain of the sunglasses generate a donation for the Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care.

Let’s stipulate that contracting breast cancer at any age is never cool. But is YSC cool enough for Oakley?

Here’s how Oakley positions the relationship on its website:

"Young athletes feel indestructible. It’s an attitude that lets them challenge all limits. Young women are the same when it comes to health. Even the idea of breast cancer seems distant, an unlikely detour far down the road and decades from possibility. The reality is closer than most realize. In the United States alone, more than 250,000 women under age 40 are living with breast cancer, and it’s the leading cause of cancer deaths in women 15 to 54. Cancers in young women are generally more aggressive. The disease is usually diagnosed at later stages than with older women, and the survival rate is lower."

"The YOUNG SURVIVAL COALITION (YSC) is a non-profit network focused on the concerns and issues unique to young women affected by breast cancer. The YSC’s core purpose is to improve the quality and quantity of life for all young women facing the challenges of breast cancer. A proud partner of the YSC, Oakley is helping support its mission of Action, Advocacy and Awareness by providing $20 from each sale of this special edition sunglass and 10% from each sale of special edition apparel."

I think Oakley thinks YSC is plenty cool enough.

Gambling With Your Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing

It’s older than bingo in the basement of the local parish and, if you get the offer right, an all-but-certain money raiser. Except that adding gambling to your pink ribbon cause marketing promotion is also almost certainly a mistake.

This post was prompted by a raffle… the mildest of games of chance… that took place at Longevity Pilates in Verona, New Jersey. Raffle tickets were $2… six tickets for $10…and the prize was 1 private session or three group classes with the studio’s Pilates teacher of choice. Proceeds went to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The campaign was conducted in tribute to Nancy Contey, the daughter of a longstanding Longevity Pilates client who had lost her fight with breast cancer at age 46.  

How is any of this a mistake, you ask? Well, let’s start with some definitions courtesy of Wikipedia:

“A game of chance is a game whose outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device, and upon which contestants may or may not wager money or anything of monetary value. Common devices used include dice, spinning tops, playing cards, roulette wheels or numbered balls drawn from a container. A game of chance may have some skill element to it, however, chance generally plays a greater role in determining the outcome than skill. A game of skill, on the other hand, also has an element of chance, but with skill playing a greater role in determining the outcome.”

“Any game of chance that involves anything of monetary value is gambling.”

So, because the Pilates lessons have a monetary value the campaign represents a form of gambling. In my state bingo and raffles like this one are illegal, even for charities.

Fine for me and my state, you say, but a promotion like this would be super-easy to trigger at the local level where it is legal and probably effective.

Nonetheless, there are reasons not to.

We all know the downsides of gambling for individuals; financial insecurity, legal troubles, employment difficulties, even a higher risk for suicide.

For society as a whole the negatives are equally pronounced; political corruption tends to dog gambling wherever it is active, the number of ‘pathological’ gamblers increases wherever gambling takes hold, and, notwithstanding the promises going in about the use of gambling revenue, there’s currently a strong correlation between state budget deficits and states that have casinos, notably Illinois, California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. 

But there are risks for brands, too. Gambling… even in mild forms… represents taking without giving real value in return. And if you sell a product or provide a service for a fee, you can hardly want to encourage that kind of thinking. Even a state lottery tells people that that they don’t have work hard, be thrifty, or improve themselves. They just have to pick the right numbers. The addition of the cause tends to take the sting out of gambling. But, of course, it is still gambling. Warren Buffet calls Gambling is a “tax on ignorance,” because only the ‘house’ reliably wins. For these reasons you hardly ever see mainstream companies actively co-brand with gambling companies. To do so would be hazardous to the mainstream brand.

Then there is this. Did they participate in your cause marketing campaign because of the cause or because of the game of chance? If you don’t know which, how do you improve the effort for the next time?

I actively discourage you from using gambling in your cause marketing efforts.

I'm Calling You Out Etsy! (But Not Because of that Puny Pink Ribbon Debacle.)

Earlier this month the Internet was in high dudgeon… in the way that only the Internet can be… because someone accused Etsy of pink washing. In its Daily Finds newsletter Etsy had bundled together several items with a pink hue in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month from its vast web of items. And, the story goes, some of the items had only the loosest sort of connection to breast cancer or breast cancer charities.

I swear, sometimes the Internet is such a hothouse environment. It can be like the worst parts of high school.

But this momentary blip in the Twitter feed did prompt this idea. Why doesn’t Etsy just bake cause marketing capability right into its API?

That is, why doesn’t Etsy offer its shopkeepers the ability to trigger a transactional cause marketing promotion on demand according to terms they set?

For example, if you sell flag-themed purses and you want to make $3 donation to the Wounded Warrior Project when people buy your stars and stripes purse in July, Etsy oughta make that capability super easy and free for their shops.

I’m not a programmer, but it seems to me that Etsy’s people wouldn’t need to break any new ground doing this. Many sites have figured out how to sign up multiple participating charities, so that’s very doable too. There could be some challenges with local government charitable solicitation rules. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ll bet those aren’t insurmountable either. Payment transfers to the charities? NBD.

Why would Etsy go to the trouble and expense?

Well, there’s a short list of reasons including: increase sales; give its shops a way to stand out; and build its own competitive bulwark.

But I think the main reason is pride. Etsy can rightly claim that it democratized the world of the small crafter and opened whole new markets.

Etsy could, with its shops, democratize the world of small cause marketing, too. 

Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing for the Fisher-Woman

To find notable pink ribbon cause marketing to profile this month, I’ll bet I’ve looked at 150 different efforts for various nail polishes, shampoos, makeup, and perfumes, plus every kind of gew-gaw that can be be-sparkled, bejeweled and be-spangled in every pink tone. And, fear not, more is coming until I shut down this special month-long pink ribbon edition of the blog on October 31.

But as a palate-cleanser, if you will, check out this effort from Emotion Kayaks. Emotion makes well-priced HPDE paddle boats and kayaks, both the sit-inside kind and the sit on top variety. Emotion is a brand from Lifetime Products, whose lightweight… and, again, well-priced… HPDE and steel fold-up tables have been in my home for at least 15 years.

When you buy the pink Emotion Glide Angler, a sit-inside kayak with two fly rod holders, for $550, Lifetime will donate $25 to Casting for Recovery, a pink ribbon charity founded in 1996 that I’m only just learning about.

Casting for Recovery, headquartered in Manchester, Vermont, puts together no-cost 2½ day retreats across the country for groups of 14 women with breast cancer. They teach them fly fishing in outdoor settings and offer a forum in which to forge new relationships. In my market, the retreats are held at a handsome little 100-year-old resort that sits within a few miles of a blue-ribbon trout stream.

Participants are chosen through an application process.

I love the name Casting for Recovery. Many of the verbs in pink ribbon cause marketing have a take-charge edge: ‘Run for the Cure;’ ‘Battle for a Cure;’ ‘Romp a Stomp;’ ‘Bulldog for the Cure;’ ‘Bludgeon for the Cure.’ OK, I made up those last two, but you take my point.

Of course we all want and expect a cure to breast cancer. And when it doesn’t come in as timely a fashion as want, we point fingers. But every woman navigates the breast cancer maze in her own way. And breast cancer militancy of the sort served up by many of the pink ribbon charities isn’t for every woman with breast cancer.

Fly fishing isn’t about swatting the fish out of the water mama grizzly bear style. Fly fishing… and for many women, surviving breast cancer… is about making good choices at good times.

Where's the Pink Ribbons at Nissan, Toyota and Dodge Dealers?

There’s a big pink ribbon behind the Chevy sign on the building at my local dealer. Chevy has multiple promotions that their dealers seemingly can embrace to whatever degree they prefer. Chevy Service enables people to donate the rebate from certain oil changes and brake pad installations to the American Cancer Society. On October 6, Chevy donated $10 per test drive up to $130,000 for anyone who came into dealers and test-drove a Chevy. Plus, there's several more extensions.

So, Ford is tied up with Susan G. Komen for the Cure in a merchandise effort called Ford Warriors in Pink. Starting in 1997 and for at least a dozen years following, BMW did both promotions and celebrity-studded merchandise sales on behalf Komen.

Why are automotive companies targeting women so specifically? Because women have disproportionate influence on the car that households ultimately purchase. But few women have any love for the car buying process or hanging out at the dealership. Take the sting out of that and boom!, maybe you got a shot at a loyal customer.

Since there’s a number of high quality breast cancer charities besides Komen and the ACS, and a couple more major automakers in the American market, I gotta ask; where’s the pink ribbons this month at the Nissan, Toyota, and Dodge dealerships?

Below, I’ve excerpted a portion of Chevy press release from Labor Day 2012 announcing a donation based on the number of laps under the caution flag at the Advocare 500. I’m trying to give a sense of the way they position their pink ribbon cause marketing against Ford’s.

"DETROIT – Chevrolet Racing will renew the brand's fight against breast cancer this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway where every lap run under the caution flag will lead to a $200 contribution by Chevrolet to the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer initiative.

"For our 100th birthday in 2011, Chevrolet began its support of the American Cancer Society, and the generous response from our dealers, employees and customers told us we needed to help the Society fight for more birthdays," said Don Johnson, vice president of Chevrolet Sales and Service. "At Chevy, we believe everyday heroes can accomplish extraordinary things, and it is in this spirit that we work to achieve a world without breast cancer."

On Friday, 30 breast cancer survivors and their guests will spend the day at Atlanta Motor Speedway and participate in Chevrolet Camaro SS pace car rides around the historic track with Team Chevy NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jamie McMurray and four-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Champion Ron Hornaday Jr. NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Danica Patrick also will visit with survivors for photos and autographs.

On Sunday, Chevy will donate $200 for every caution lap run during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AdvoCare 500, paced by the pink Camaro SS featuring the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer logo. In 2011, 64 caution laps at Atlanta generated $12,800 for the American Cancer Society…

…"Last year, contributions of more than $900,000 supported the American Cancer Society's mission to save lives by helping people stay well and get well, by finding cures and by fighting back against this disease," said Roshini George, national vice president of health promotions for the American Cancer Society. "As we approach National Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, we want thank the Chevrolet family for its support and remind everyone to take the steps that make a difference in our fight against breast cancer."

Open Your Own Pink Ribbon Merchandise Line, Why?

A grad student recently sent me a series of questions about the future of cause marketing and one of the things I see more of over the near term is causes putting out their own lines of branded merchandise. When I look at this pink miniskirt skirt from the Loft benefiting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, I wonder why.

Right now when you buy this sequined miniskirt (in ‘blushing rose’) for $70, the Loft will give 25 percent to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Clothing at retail is said to be marked up between 100 and 350 percent, more for luxury brands. Little surprise then that enterprising nonprofit managers look at these margins longingly. “We have a compelling brand,” they say, “and an engaged user base willing to buy things from us directly. Why not build a merchandise line?”

But. But. But.

Ann Taylor Stores Corporation, which owns the Loft, has almost 60 years experience figuring out what women want and what they like to wear. The 510 Loft stores have clerks trained to sell and fit women. If you’re dissatisfied with a purchase, the Loft has a return policy. There are 14 Loft outlet stores for the merchandise that doesn’t sell as well. The Loft has a method for dealing with merchandise that doesn’t sell even at the outlet stores.

The Loft knows where to get goods manufactured. It knows which factories are efficient and effective. It knows who’s honest and easy-to-work with. It knows how to tell the good designers from the bad. It knows how to get a container-load of blushing rose miniskirts to the Port of Long Beach, and from there to its stores. It knows how long that trip across the Pacific should take. It knows what to do if that container of blushing rose miniskirts blows off the deck of the cargo ship into the Pacific during a storm.

The Loft has a highly-functional website optimized for selling clothing to women. And, if you don’t like what you buy online, it has a way of letting you return the merchandise. If you call their 800-number, someone answers.

Finally, there is this. If the viscose that the skirt is made of turns out to be sub-par, or the sequins detach too easily, only the most dyspeptic among us blames the Breast Cancer Research Foundation or think less of it. But if the BCRF sold the skirt directly then a bad garment would reflect poorly on the Foundation.

I can see the temptation for charities to get into their own branded merchandise. $35 (assuming a 100 percent markup) is more than 25 percent of $70, after all. But for most causes, I don’t think the rewards outweigh the risks.

Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing and In-Kind Sponsorship

Suppose your company wants to get in on a little of the pink ribbon cause marketing, but your business doesn’t necessarily face the consumer and you want your donation to be in-kind, is there a place for you?

The short answer is maybe.

Many’s the company that have been asked by a charity to provide in-kind support of some kind; airline tickets, hotel stays, restaurant vouchers, etc. Stuff that can be auctioned or offered as a premium to donors.

But causes have other needs that they typically have to pay for; audio-visual equipment, mailhouse or database services, website design, employee benefits administration, delivery vans, and more. Any expense a charity doesn’t incur is money that can be put toward the mission.

And so, while a charity’s first preference is a cash donation, they’re almost always willing to talk about in-kind donations as well.

Long Fence, a large residential and commercial fencing contractor on the East Coast of the United States, is a Diamond Sponsor of the Komen Maryland Race for the Cure, which took place yesterday. It provided fencing to separate participants and spectators during the race held in Hunt Valley, Maryland, a northern suburb of Baltimore.

Long Fence, puts up and then takes down the fencing required for the event. The Komen race is the largest such event in Maryland with more than 33,000 racers in 2011.

Now, Long Fence’s in-kind sponsorship is almost certainly recognized on Komen of Maryland’s website and certain print collateral, maybe in social media as well.

But that’s not how I learned about it. Instead, Long Fence put out a press release touting its Diamond level sponsorship of Komen of Maryland.

For some companies that provide in-kind donations to charities, a press release of this type would be gauche. They’ll accept the letters of thanks for their in-kind donations and other recognition in materials, and websites, but to publicize it themselves would seem wrong.

That’s a decision they have come to internally based on their beliefs and culture.

But given its culture, Long Fence’s tactically executed its in-kind donation to a pink ribbon charity perfectly.

The Sponsor/Cause Match in Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing

Research and experience show that the match between the cause and the sponsor is an important determining factor in the success of the cause marketing campaign. There’s a few notable exceptions…namely when the cause and the sponsor are very well known. But, in general, the less time you have to spend explaining the relationship the better.

For instance, this campaign from Lula Lu and Save the Ta-Tas. When you buy one of Lula Lu’s Kallie Bras, the company will donate 10 percent of the sale to Save the Ta-Tas.

Lula Lu sells lingerie for petite women.

Save the Ta-Tas is a two-part brand. A for-profit entity sells merchandise with its name and logo. Five percent of each purchase and 10 percent of everything they license goes to the Save the Ta-Tas Foundation. The Foundation funnels the money to breast cancer research as advised and matched by the Concern Foundation.

Before ‘Eff’ Cancer came along, Save the Ta-Tas was the most irreverent brand in anti-cancer.

Now, Lula Lu isn’t breaking new ground here. Back in the day, bra brands like Madenform, Playtex, Bali, Warner’s, and the like, frequently did cause marketing efforts, although I haven’t seen one in a while.

You can understand why. Bras and breast cancer go together. No explanation is necessary. Plus, there’s a certain expectation built-into such strictly-feminine products. Much more so than, say, Ford and its longstanding relationship with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

That said, Save the Ta-Tas is an interesting partner for Lula Lu because the cause is quite non-traditional. Unlike a cause like the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Save the Ta-Tas is both a for-profit business and a nonprofit cause. Save the Ta-Tas and Lula Lu aren’t direct competitors. But they are indirect competitors. Plus, Lula Lu is putting a lot of trust in the placement of research dollars from the Concern Foundation.

I suspect Lula Lu just wanted to access some of that light-hearted cheek that pervades the Save the Ta-Tas brand.

Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing Targeted to Men

My travels yesterday took me to a suburban Ulta Beauty store. There was a great deal of cause marketing going on there, none of it… not surprisingly… aimed at a someone like me.

But why not? Men are both directly and indirectly affected by breast cancer. About 2,000 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, and about 400 men a year die from it. It’s far more likely that men will be indirectly affected by breast cancer via their wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and cousins. My mother was a breast cancer survivor, for instance.

Men have a major stake in breast cancer awareness and a cure, in other words. So where’s the pink ribbon cause marketing targeted at men?

Some pink ribbon shoes come in men’s sizes. The NFL offers pink merchandise in men’s sizes in conjunction with its partner the American Cancer Society. A man could certainly play tennis with a Wilson Hope Lite racquet or soccer with Puma Project Pink skill ball. There’s some pink ribbon jewelry that men could wear.

A man could buy sliced meats and cheeses from Boar’s Head… sold in the deli sections of many grocery stores in North America… which has done pink ribbon cause marketing in the past. And, of course, there’s soaps, candles, shampoos, lotions, and other potions festooned with pink ribbons… that men can and do use…but which aren’t marketed to the male gender, per say.

Here’s one that could: Tic Tacs.

The little mini breath mints in a clear plastic box, are sporting the pink ribbon this month. Tic Tac is donating $100,000 to CancerCare, a nonprofit that provides counseling, support groups, information, and the like to people with any type of cancer. The campaign is called Shake, Care, and Share. The flavors are a pink strawberry mixed with the regular a white cream flavor.

So imagine a TV ad with a handsome man, perhaps 30. He enters a building complex passing a sign that says ‘Breast Cancer Treatment Center’ and dashes up the stairs. Over this footage a voiceover says:

“This October, Tic Tac, the little breath mints with just 2 calories each, is donating $100,000 to CancerCare, the charity that helps thousands of Americans deal with cancer.”

The man walks in the waiting room, and scans it. He sees who he’s looking for, makes a quick wave and a smile, and pops a couple of Tic Tacs. He walks over and kisses a woman, who we only just now see. She’s beautiful, about 60, and has very short hair. She smiles back carefully.

“Hi mom,” he says, “you ready for another one?”

She nods bravely and they walk together into the next room, hand-in-hand.

Fade to black. Bring up logos.

Narrator: “Tic Tac. Shake, Care, and Share.”

Yes and Yes Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing

I’ve been getting pushback from my Oct. 4 post titled, ‘Transactional Cause Marketing is Not the Boogeyman.” In it I dismissed people who get heartburn from the practice of transactional cause marketing, that is, when a purchase triggers the donation. Fear not friends, there is a middle ground as evidenced by Hope tennis balls from Wilson that you see on the left.

But first, the pushback. Here’s what I wrote then:

“Transactional cause marketing is a promotion. So are coupons, sales flyers, sampling, among many others. But let’s just drill down on sampling. It’s very clear that when stores sample a product you’re more likely to buy it because it generates a powerful sense of reciprocity. Cause marketing pulls many of the same psychological strings. So why does the addition of a cause make transactional cause marketing somehow more underhanded than sampling? For that matter, it seems that lump-sum donations are just as likely to get you to buy something as transactional cause marketing. So why not pin the donation directly to the purchase, and, in all likelihood, raise more money for the cause?”

“Yeah, but,” the response came, “it’s a promotion with a trusted charity. And so it’s not the same.” (Apparently my clause about cause marketing pulling the same psychological strings as other forms of sales promotion wasn’t terribly persuasive.) 

So here’s a compromise custom-made for people who think transactional cause marketing is too manipulative, but want to generate more money for the cause and its mission: split the baby. Don’t make it not a yes or no issue. Make it a yes and yes issue.

That’s what Wilson, the big sporting goods company, does with this pink ribbon cause marketing campaign. A canister of three pink Hope tennis balls retails for $6. Its partner in the promotion, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, gets $100,000 no matter what. And, the BCRF also gets 1% of the proceeds.

The reason I suggested a transactional cause marketing approach for OPI nail polish in that Oct. 4 post was that the company’s donation to the breast cancer charity has been static for basically the last three years. Making it transactional would probably raise the amount generated for the cause.

In saying yes and yes, Wilson is taking the sting out of those arguments that transactional cause marketing is unfair or insidious. The cause is going to get its $100,000 no matter what. But it could also be a multiple of $100,000 depending on how people respond to the offer.  

Asymmetry in Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing

Not every cause marketing campaign features the likes of the YMCA and Coke*. Sometimes it takes place between a charity which is very well known and a sponsor that isn’t. Or, vice versa.

(*Interbrand ranks Coke as the top for-profit brand for 2012. Cone ranked YMCA as the top nonprofit brand.)

I call that dynamic ‘asymmetrical cause marketing.’

For instance, Shiseido, certainly Asia’s oldest and best-known cosmetic brand and the cause called Cancer and Careers, which I had to look up.

The offer here is a straightforward transactional cause marketing effort. Buy a tube of Shiseido Lacquer Rouge lipstick in the color called ‘Disco’ for $25 and Shiseido will donate $5 to Cancer and Careers.

Research and experience shows that the most reliable results comes when the sponsor’s brand and the cause’s brand are basically equally well-known. The other two possible dynamics… the cause is better known than the sponsor or the sponsor is better known than the cause… tend to produce results whereby the greatest benefit redounds to the lesser-known entity.

So, research suggests, in the case at the left, Cancer and Careers gets more from the campaign than does Shiseido.     

Why would a sponsor or cause agree to a partnership wherein the benefits will be asymmetrical? There’s several legitimate reasons, including:

• There’s real passion for the cause.

• The fit is especially good.

• A high executive really wants it to happen.

• Somebody’s doing someone a favor.

• Other compensating factors.

In the case of Shiseido and Cancer and Careers, the last reason provided the best explanations.

Here’s how the cause’s website puts it:

“In 2001, The Cosmetic Executive Women Board of Directors' came upon a startling realization: Five out of some 40 board members had been diagnosed with cancer. Some told their colleagues at work. Others did not. But all continued to work during or following treatment and came upon similar dilemmas.

“How do I tell my boss? What will my coworkers think? How do I balance work and treatment? What can I expect from my employer? What are my legal rights? What do other people do?

“The truth is, work doesn't stop once you've been diagnosed with cancer. Over 80% of cancer survivors return to work after treatment. And once diagnosed, work becomes even more important.”

Cause Marketing and Branding

Done right, cause marketing can be a terrific branding tool for the cause and the sponsor. But doing it right is the challenge.

It’s easy to slap together a transactional cause marketing campaign for some consumable item; a box of Kleenix, a candy bar, a toothbrush. But when a consumer purchases an everyday item, that purchase probably doesn’t connect the cause, the sponsor, and the consumer at a very deep level. No one uses a Zip-Loc bag, which benefits schools through the Boxtops for Education campaign, and thinks about local school kids having better educational outcomes as a result.  

As a marketer I don’t have any problem with that kind of imbedded giving that exists at a surface level. But if the sponsor or the cause wants to really build their brand, they’re going to need to add a little extra something.

That’s what Sharpie has done in its effort on behalf of the City of Hope’s breast cancer research efforts.

During October when you buy pink Sharpie products a donation is triggered. But it’s Sharpie’s extensions that I think are more notable. During October every autograph submitted in pink Sharpie garners $1 for the City of Hope. Naturally, they’ve secured the support of a number of celebrities.

Sharpie employees that donated $10 or more to City of Hope got to wear jeans to work the week of Sept 28, 2012 to October 9, 2012. They also did an employee bake sale, a walk and an auction of items created with Sharpies by top designers.

But my favorite campaign extension from Sharpie is a weekly contest that runs until Nov. 2, 2012. Submit an original work of art in pink Sharpie and you could win $1,000 worth of Sharpie markers and pens. There’s one winner a week.

I think it would be almost impossible to use Sharpie’s pink pens/markers without making a deeper connection with the cause than you would if, say, you ate a Snickers candy bar. The purchase of Snickers bars have benefited Feeding America. There’s something about the creativity required in art, as well as the physicality of drawing with a pen, that would, I think, tie you closer to the cause, and better build the brand.

My only quibble with the campaign is that $1,000 worth of Sharpies represents 200 sets of pink markers and 200 sets of pink pens. The contest rules suggest that the Sharpies could go to your local school(s). You’d probably want to do that since Sharpie is going to send you a 1099 for the full value of the prize. That is, you’re going to have to pay taxes on a thousand-dollars-worth of markers.

Moreover, a Sharpie has a long life-span, and a pink one even longer since it probably won’t get the same use that a black one does. Four hundred pink Sharpie markers/pens is a lot. So why not give $1,000 cash in the name of winner to the City of Hope, and $100 in Sharpies?

Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing Doing Its Job Again

Breast cancer is heterogeneous, not homogeneous. There are subtypes that are more deadly and less receptive to current therapies, including a variety known as triple negative breast cancer.

Most breast cancers are fueled by three hormonal ‘receptors;’ estrogen, progesterone, or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Consequently, most successful treatments target these receptors. A triple negative breast cancer diagnosis means that the cancer was not triggered by hormonal receptors.

Triple negative breast cancer represents about 15% to 25% of all breast cancer cases, so it’s not exactly an orphan disease, even if I’d never heard of it. Among younger women triple negative breast cancer disproportionately affects African Americans, and their prognosis is worse than for women from other ethnic groups.

While triple negative breast cancer responds well to chemotherapy, in some cases early complete response does not correlate with survival rates. And so it’s especially challenging for clinicians to dial in the right chemotherapy for women battling TNBC.

The Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation was founded in 2006 in honor of Nancy Block-Zenna. Block-Zenna was diagnosed with TNBC in 2005 and died 2½ years later from the disease. Robin Littman, a friend from childhood on, and her husband had beach towels made embroidered with a peace sign, a heart, and a pink ribbon. Sales of the towels were meant to help Nancy pay for chemotherapy that her insurance company initially refused to cover. In time the insurance company relented, but by that point Littman and friends had generated more than $9,000. That sum seeded the foundation.

Before I saw the silk blouse at the left from RebeccaTaylor.com, whose sale benefits the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation, I knew exactly none of this. The blouse sells for $225 and one-half the proceeds benefit the TNBC.

This cause marketing effort, therefore, did one-half its job; it raised awareness. If you like the blouse and buy it, you’ll help the campaign meet the other half of its goal… funding for the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation to do research and raise awareness of this subtype of breast cancer.

A Word is Not What it Signifies, And a Pink Ribbon Is Not an Emotion

As of yesterday we are 1/3 of our way through National Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2012 and conspicuous by its absence is the one thing that separates cause marketing from every other kind of tactical marketing, namely genuine emotion.

Too few cause marketers get this right during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. That is, they use the symbols of the month…pink and pink ribbons… as a short hand for the real emotion that surrounds the diagnosis.

It’s a simple semiotics problem, in fact. Semiotics, says Merriam-Webster, is “a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.”

Here’s an example using an English cliché from the American idiom: dumb cause marketing is ‘easier than falling off a log.’ The noun ‘log’ is not actually a log. It’s not even a facsimile of a log like a photograph of a log would be. Instead, it’s an abstraction of the idea of a log. I won’t go any further because semiotics can be a real mindbender, but you get the point.

Likewise, we utilize the pink ribbon as a symbol of breast cancer and the fight against the disease. But in North America the marketplace is saturated with pink ribbons to the point where the symbol doesn’t often point us back to real human feelings, those emotions that help forge our humanity.

That’s why I applaud Kroger’s use of the personal narrative on this case of its house brand of bottled water and in support of its Giving Hope a Hand. Printed on the plastic wrap are stories of women in the ‘Kroger family’ who have fought back breast cancer. Pictured is a story from ‘Rebecca.’ On the flip side is a narrative from ‘Jamie.’

The wrap is pink, but it doesn't just call on symbols of breast cancer. Instead, we hear the first-hand accounts of human triumph from living, breathing people.

Good for Kroger for bringing us back to basics of cause marketing.

Using Sweepstakes in Cause Marketing

When you cause market with a retail partner, in most cases the donation is based on accessing their customer base. In such promotions, the cause is probably enough to get some customers to donate. But sometimes you want or need what I call a ‘MacGuffin,” a term I borrow from the illustrious film director, Alfred Hitchcock.

In this case from Ulta Beauty stores the MacGuffin is a sweepstakes for anyone who donates at least a dollar to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation at one of their stores during the month of October 2012.

In Hitchcock’s definition, a MacGuffin is a plot device that impels people to act. George Lucas said the MacGuffin in Star Wars is R2D2. In Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, the MacGuffin is the Crystal Skull. In Mission Impossible IV, it’s the Russian nuclear launch codes.

The MacGuffin in this promotion from Ulta is a chance to win one of 532 beauty bags, one per store. In order to pass muster with Federal and state regulators, there is an alternate form of entry that costs nothing.

Using a sweepstakes as a cause marketing MacGuffin can really work. I once did a paper icon campaign that had a sweepstakes component that included a chance to win a Harley Davidson motorcycle. The paper icons were priced at $1 each and came with an entry form. It was a two-stage promotion. You had to get drawn for the chance and then you had to come within 5 feet of a hole-in-one at a participating country club.

At the time, I worked for a children’s charity. We thought we needed a MacGuffin because we were all but unknown in the local market.

Believe it or not, somebody did win the Harley. We were insured, so it only cost us the price of the insurance policy. We raised a ton of money and the publicity was dynamite.

Done right, sweepstakes can be a fabulous MacGuffin.

Avon and 100% Donation Cause Marketing

When you buy a bottle of Avon’s Pink Power Pro Nail Enamel, 100% of the profits go to Avon Breast Cancer Crusade. Avon sells the product for $3 a bottle.

Since 1992, the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade under the aegis of the Avon Foundation has generated more than $740 million, an astonishing number by any measure. Given Avon’s bona fides, I wonder why it bothers with the 100% of profits model for this product? Why not just follow MAC Viva Glam lipsticks and glosses lead and give 100% of sales of this product to Avon Breast Cancer Crusade?

Why would they want to? After all, such efforts include not only the cost of the donation, but the cost of the product along with the cost of distribution, which in Avon’s case would certainly include commissions to the Avon ladies. A $3 donation would probably cost Avon something north of $4 per bottle.

The short answer is those Avon ladies need all the sales arrows in their quiver that they can get. They need a low-threat way to talk about Avon products and the Avon business opportunity. Plus, basically giving a product away for the price of a donation to a good cause creates a natural desire to reciprocate in some way. It also qualifies buyers, since they have to pull out their pocketbooks in order to take advantage of the offer.

And so, to be able to lead with something like, “when you buy Avon’s Pink Power Pro Nail Enamel every penny goes to Avon Breast Cancer Crusade,” is a pretty cool story to tell.

Likewise, every year a new generation of girls grows up to become part of Avon’s favored demographic; many of whom "know not" Avon. So long as the product is of a good quality, well-priced, and comes in colors women will respond to, giving it away for a $3 donation gives Avon has a second class of advantage. In effect, it becomes a sampling opportunity.

I glanced quickly through Avon’s online catalog and found 10 items associated with breast cancer: a pink denim jacket, another nail polish, a pin, a watch, and more. Eight of the items were merchandise and two polishes represented transactional cause marketing; buy this and a donation of $x is made.

In most cases Avon names the donation amount generated by a purchase. Avon has a foot in 100% donation door already.

To Avon I say step through the 100% donation door one year and see how it works.

Our Inadequate Use of the Internet in Etail Cause Marketing

U.S. Census figures put ecommerce at 5.1 percent of total retail sales in the second quarter of 2012, up from 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2011. Almost everyone see etail’s percentage of total retail sales doubling and even trebling in the next three to five years.

Naturally a lot of cause marketing has migrated to etail as well.

However, rare is the etail cause marketing promotion that really makes good use of the Internet’s many powers. It’s like running a TV commercial, but without using any sound. Or, showing a blockbuster on 25 percent of the movie screen.

This campaign by Chicbuds.com, which sells earbuds and this cute little powered speaker for your mobile device for $40 called a fauvette. During October, 2012, 20 percent of the sale of each bedazzled fauvette… or $8… goes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Fauvette, in French, means a small singing bird, like a nightingale or a warbler.

These fauvettes come bedazzled with crystals in pink, black and gold, and are sized for a purse or even a clutch. My girls, neither of whom yet carries a purse, would have a nickname for their fauvette before the credit card receipt printed, they’re that cute.

When it comes to cause marketing, etailers hold a few extra cards that are especially beneficial to causes. Advantages that almost no retail channel could match.

For instance, the clerk at my nearby Jamba Juice on Saturday, October 6, was very enthusiastic as he sold me a paper icon benefiting the National Breast Cancer Foundation. But he couldn’t really tell me how the money would be used or how I could get involved beyond spending the $1 and signing my name to the icon.

By contrast, when the transaction was complete, Chicbud.com could steer me to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s tax return or programs page. It could have put up video stories that demonstrate the power of early detection or the promise of certain research pathways. It could have thanked me specifically, calling me by name.

It could have sent me to Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s Facebook page or asked me to consider participating in an event. It could have asked me a handful of questions to know where to send me first. Or it could have asked me for an email address and for the permission to contact me at a later date.

In short, with not much programming, Chicbuds.com could have helped enable me to start a deeper relationship with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Chicbuds.com, I’m sorry to say, did none of these things. But all these things and many more are very possible and even easy, if only the etailer and the cause had a better relationship.

But, as I said, if Chicbuds.com had done any one of these things, it would have been the exception among etailers doing cause marketing. My friends, it’s time that we start really using the power of the Internet when activating etail cause marketing.

And Now on Opposing Opinion on Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Jen Dinoia, who dealt with breast cancer in 2010, is no fan of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. "Awareness did nothing for me," as she puts it. Jen Dinoia writes The Dinoia Family blog while running her happily crazy Foreign Service family household. Currently in the U.S., the three kids, two parents & cat are eagerly anticipating a move to Nicaragua in 2013. So here with a different take on Breast Cancer Awareness Month is guest poster Jen Dinoia.

I walked into my new favorite coffee shop today,and was hit with the realization that it is once again that time of year. No, not Halloween or Christmas, or even just lovely fall decor... I was lightly slapped with the pink.

If you remember from this post, I am not a fan of a certain large corporation (let's face it, that is what they are) that claims they are racing towards a cure (while suing small non-profits that dare to use the word "cure" in a campaign and giving their top dogs rather inflated salaries). It dismayed me to be diagnosed with bc during the month of "Pinktober" (now apparently an official Hard Rock Cafe term - triple vomit) and have to deal with not only the pink crap being thrown at me right and left, but the stuff being sold everywhere in stores in the name of a cure.

The only problem? The stuff being sold is junk...t-shirts, pens, mugs, "Pink Ribbon pasta," pots, pans, Kitchen-aid mixers (really?!, okay, the mixer isn't junk, but the color...) and all are huge reminders to those of us who have dealt with this issue, that we are nothing more than pawns in a giant movement and poster children for a few CEOs.

When I was diagnosed, I was in the opposite camp already. I was predisposed to loathing the "K Kulture" and figured I would deal with the whole thing and go back to my normal life. This is great, except that then the Pink Ribbon business started to ramp up even more. More junk appeared in stores, I received more requests for money (cause we weren't paying enough for treatment and other related issues?!) and I realize that many were blinded by the whole awareness thing.

Here's the deal: if you have even thought about this issue, you are aware.  The whole awareness thing, excuse my French, is a load of crap. Awareness did nothing for me. I still lost part of myself and spent 3 painful surgeries getting it back. It took me 8 months to go from feeling like I didn't want to get out of bed to realizing that my life was not over. You know what have really helped? Not more awareness of bc, but more awareness that the best thing you can do for yourself is to get back to what makes you tick, what makes you happy, what makes you...YOU. For me, that is not bc...not now, and it never will be.

I think if I had to guess, there would be many out there who feel the same way. I am fairly sure if I had to deal with any other type of cancer, I would not have had to feel like I was supposed to be part of a new and sexy (vomit...it's hardly sexy, trust me), cause. There  wouldn't have t-shirts with insulting sayings bandied about everywhere (own a Pink Ribbon t-shirt with any slogan and you want to support me? Turn it into a dustrag!), items made from cancer-causing ingredients and you know who (the leader of the K culture) standing up saying how much good her corporation is doing (wow, last year they spent a whopping 15% on research awards and grants according to Reuters...and how much was on pink porta-potties and t-shirts?).

Now, I must admit today I was not nearly offended as I could have been. Instead of being assaulted by the Pink (like in last week's trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond), I was only lightly slapped. Caribou coffee did have a few items, but not shockingly pink and the display was dedicated to employees who have dealt with the issue. Even better? Last week, Caribou announced they were splitting with the K Kulture and will be donating to CancerCare instead. Go, Caribou, and many thanks to Sarah Novak for introducing me to the fabulousness that is the 'Boo!

So, in light of all of this, what should you do if you really feel you need to do something? Well, put the money back in your wallet unless you feel like donating to an organization that truly cares (like CancerCare). Do what my friends did for me and just help take care of someone dealing with bc, whether by cooking dinner, taking them out for coffee or just calling them on the phone and not discussing the pink elephant in the room. 

Even better? Get out, enjoy the month and the changing of the seasons. Enjoy October for what it should be...leaves, hot cider, pumpkin patches and warm sweaters... not the massive consumerism mess it has become, thanks to the Kulture.

Transactional Cause Marketing Is Not the Boogeyman

For a short while signs have appeared that seem to suggest that a company’s halo shines just as brightly whether they sponsor a transactional cause marketing effort as when they just make a lump sum pre-donation and promote it.

Cone’s most recent Cause Evolution study found that people are only slightly more favorably inclined towards companies employing transactional cause marketing (53%) than to lump sum charitable donations (47%).

Transactional cause marketing is when the sponsor ties its donation directly to a purchase.

Cone’s survey amplifies a small experiment highlighted in the book, “Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive,” by Goldstein, Martin, Cialdini, which had a similar finding.

But these studies make me itchy and uncomfortable, like a wool sweater in Indian Summer. It could be self-interest that gives me the itch. I make my living helping causes and companies put together effective cause marketing campaigns, after all, not showing people how to write a check.

Moreover, I keep hearing from people that there’s something perhaps underhanded about transactional cause marketing. I talked to two reporters this week who both raised the issue.

My response to one went like this: Transactional cause marketing is a promotion. So are coupons, sales flyers, sampling, among many others. But let’s just drill down on sampling. It’s very clear that when stores sample a product you’re more likely to buy it because it generates a powerful sense of reciprocity. Cause marketing pulls many of the same psychological strings. So why does the addition of a cause make transactional cause marketing somehow more underhanded than sampling? For that matter, it seems that lump-sum donations are just as likely to get you to buy something as transactional cause marketing. So why not pin the donation directly to the purchase, and, in all likelihood, raise more money for the cause?

Which brings us to O.P.I., which makes well-beloved and wonderfully-named, nail polishes and lacquers. O.P.I. has been doing $25,000 lump sum donations for several years to various causes, in this case to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. O.P.I.’s usual MO is to come up with a new color, give it an evocative name that ties in with the cause and then activate the promotion with ads in women’s magazines. Although I did find an O.P.I. ad from 2009 in the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database that is a case of transactional cause marketing.

$25,000 is a generous one-time donation. But who doesn’t believe that if O.P.I. made this a transactional cause marketing campaign that they wouldn’t be able to donate at least twice that much?

Moreover, with transactional cause marketing, when all is said and done you can compare sales figures against a logical cohort and get a sense of correlation, maybe even causation, based on what’s different. But with lump sum pre-donations, who can say?

So to O.P.I. I say, come on over to the dark side and try some more transactional cause marketing.

I’ve even got a name for the nail lacquer color, I suggest, “In the Black Pink.”

Research vs. Awareness in Pink Ribbon Cause Marketing

Most of the pink ribbon cause marketing we’ll see this month won’t make a clear distinction between research and awareness. Unless they say otherwise, the major pink ribbon charities put the money they raise from cause marketing where they deem best.

As a former charity executive, I’ve long argued that for charities that’s one of the principal advantages of cause marketing.

The problem is, over the years Komen in particular, but also other pink ribbon charities have positioned themselves as cure-seekers. It’s Susan G. Komen for the Cure, after all. But cancer cures are big-ticket items, costing billions of dollars and decades of time. So Komen, and others, have also covered their bets by also being about awareness. For instance, pressing women to get mammograms well before most doctors were recommending it.

If breast cancer is caught at the earliest stages, the five-year survivability rate is 98 percent. And the mortality rate for breast cancer has been clipped by 30 percent since 1992.

These are clear victories for the mission of breast cancer awareness.

Still, there’s a number of people who think that the only legitimate use of pink ribbon cause marketing monies is to fund research. In the effort above from etailer www.Electric-Yoga.com, “15% percent of your purchase of the month’s item (the Electric Mat) benefits research (my emphasis) at City of Hope.” The mat retails on the website for $78.

City of Hope in Duarte, California is one of just 41 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States. It’s a major and respected cancer research facility, in other words.

Does City of Hope do breast cancer awareness? Probably to some degree. But judging by the way Electric-Yoga.com positioned its campaign, they don’t want to sponsor any of that. They want to sponsor research. Movies like “Pink Ribbon, Inc.” cast a gimlet eye on the idea of breast cancer awareness, too.

If the goal is to cure cancer, is this suspicion of awareness warranted?

It kind of depends on what you mean when you say ‘cure’ cancer. If by cure you mean an infallible treatment after someone contracts cancer or a prophylactic like a vaccine that could prevent all forms of the disease, a cure may be yet be decades away.

But if by cure you mean a steady diminution over time of deaths due to cancer, well, then, that’s the world we live in right now.

And breast cancer awareness can take part of the credit for that right now, too.

Asics GT-1000 PR for Christina Applegate’s Right Action for Women

If a sponsor is going to cap a donation at a certain maximum amount, what’s the right minimum amount to donate?

In this campaign, which benefits Right Action for Women - The Christina Applegate Foundation, Asics has put out a special pink running shoe with black satin laces and the iconic pink ribbon embroidered on the heel collar. During October, $2 from the sale of each shoe sold benefits The Christina Applegate Foundation, with a maximum donation of $100,000.

Actress Christina Applegate is a breast cancer survivor. The shoes retail on Amazon for $90.

So what should the minimum donation be?

Way back in the day we’d structure these kinds of deals so that there’d be no mention of a minimum donation. After all, the sponsors would be on the hook and we didn’t want to scotch a deal by committing them to a minimum amount. Plus, we were pretty confident that we’d never really get less than $250,000 out of campaigns like this.

In time, as cause marketing became more accepted, we started adding minimum donation amounts to contracts and promotional copy. Minimum donations reflect better on the company, because to consumers they represent a guaranteed donation.

So then the question becomes, how much spread should there be between the minimum and the maximum?

In this case, Asics probably made a limited production run of these GT-1000 PRs. They’re probably happy to run out of stock, but they don’t want send 25,000 people away disappointed and empty-handed. The maximum donation, therefore, was probably determined in part by the size of the production run.

And what determined the size of the production run? I’d guess it was a matter of estimates about how many they could sell.

So, how high to set the minimum donation? Part of that calculus has to include things like budgets, projected sales, projections of remaindered or discounted stock, etc.

But Asics also has to weigh how they want to be perceived by their customers, because, again, the higher the minimum the more it seems like a guarantee.

In this case, Asics set the minimum at $75,000.

Cause Marketing from Clinique Benefiting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Throughout October 2012, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’ll post on a new breast cancer cause marketing campaign each business day.

First up is Clinique’s Great Skin, Great Cause moisturizing lotion now available wherever Clinique is sold, as well as online.

The lotion is $36 and comes with a pink ribbon key ring and a breast cancer awareness pink ribbon charm. Of the $36, $10 goes to the cause, a generous donation amount from a dedicated sponsor.

Clinique is owned by the Estee Lauder Companies, so the benefiting charity is the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which was founded by Evelyn Lauder in 1993. Evelyn Lauder was the daughter-in-law of Estee and for many years the public face of the company until her death in 2011. 

Evelyn Lauder, along with Alexandra Penney, then editor of Self magazine, also co-founded and popularized the pink ribbon as a symbol of the fight against breast cancer in 1992.

In the 20 years since, the one place where you are almost guaranteed to find stuff with a pink ribbon is at an Estee Lauder counter.

I’ve argued in the past that breast cancer awareness seems slightly pointless in an age when on ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language version of the cable giant, a male oncologist shows a male host how to do a breast self-exam on-air. In that environment, it kinda seems like the breast cancer awareness message has gotten out.

But let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the breast cancer message is ever-new. Wouldn’t it be better if pink ribbon trinkets like key rings and charms actually had some usable information on them? For instance, three ways you can protect yourself against breast cancer:

1. Get a mammogram
2. Get a clinical breast exam
3. Learn how to do a self examination*

Short as that is, it’s still too long for small charm, and probably too didactic anyway.

However, the charm could have a QR code on the back that points to a website that includes actionable advice on breast cancer awareness.

Over the next 30 days we’ll see a lot of pink ribbon merchandise. But I haven’t seen a charm or anything like it that includes a QR code used in this way. Because of the intimacy of the two organizations, Estee Lauder and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation are probably the two organizations to try and make something like this happen.


*All from Susan G. Komen for the Cure