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.

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