“Pinkwashing”: Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

By now, most people have seen the KFC Pink Bucket Campaign ads or heard about the controversy surrounding the partnership between Susan B. Komen For the Cure and KFC to raise money for breast cancer research through sales of pink buckets of chicken.

If you’re not outraged by this partnership, you should be. Please follow the links below to informative articles, worthy organizations, and websites that outline how you can help express your opposition to this partnership.

• Greed, Cancer, and Pink KFC Bucketsby John Robbins, Diet For A New America
• Breast Cancer Action: the organization mentioned in John Robbins article
• Think Before you Pink
• Tell KFC and Komen to stop the pinkwashing! Send your letter of protest.I sent my letter of protest to Susan B. Komen For the Cure and received this form response:
  

  Thank you for your email to Susan G. Komen for the Cure(r). We do appreciate
  you taking the time to tell us how you feel about our partnership with KFC.
  You should know that our partnership with KFC is designed at the core to
  educate millions of people we might not otherwise reach with breast health
  information – outreach that we consider critical to our mission to save lives
  and end breast cancer. We are reaching people with life-saving messages
  through KFC’s 5,300 restaurants (about 900 of them in communities not yet
  served by a Komen Affiliate), with information in the store, on the buckets
  and in advertising directing consumers to KFC’s bucketsforthecure.com
  website, with links to www.komen.org.

  Second, this partnership is helping generate millions in funding – a goal of
  $8.5 million to be raised in six weeks – to further the nearly $1.5 billion
  in research and community programs that Komen has already spent over the past
  30 years – programs that are literally saving people’s lives through better
  treatments, early detection and advocacy at the federal and state levels.
  Because of partners like this, our $500 million in research funding has paid
  enormous dividends – 98 percent five-year survival rates for cancers that
  haven’t spread from the breast and better and more effective treatments for
  late-stage breast cancer patients, Further, these partnerships have enabled
  us to invest $900 million in our communities, providing financial and medical
  support for women, particularly low-income women, who desperately need help
  gaining access to the medical care system.

  Some ask what we are doing in terms of prevention. About 10 percent – or $50
  million – of our research budget over the years has gone to prevention
  research. We’ll invest another $20 million of our $55-$60 million research
  grant program to prevention, and continue funding programs that educate women
  about their risks.

  We recognize that this partnership brings up a conversation about obesity and
  health related to cancer. Our partnership highlights the healthy options at
  KFC – grilled chicken and vegetables, for example. Ultimately, the decision
  to maintain a well-balanced diet lies in the hands of the consumer. KFC
  provides tools to make those choices, by providing a healthier choice menu at
  its restaurants and advice on its website on how consumers can limit fat and
  calorie consumption in its products.

  We hope that you will take a moment to visit the bucketsforthecure.com
  website to learn more about the partnership and see the stories of hope,
  education and empowerment being shared there.

  We appreciate your concern and thank you for sharing it with us.

  Very truly yours,

  Margo K. Lucero
  Director, Global Corporate Relations
  5005 LBJ Freeway, Suite 250 | Dallas, TX 72544
  1-877 GO KOMEN | www.komen.org