In case you have not noticed, amongst the aisles of pumpkin themed foods and tacky Halloween décor, you can find a whole lot more pink colored items in stores during the month of October. This is because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To help spread awareness, many companies develop and sell products that donate to the breast cancer cause. While this is an amazing and easy way for both consumers and companies to contribute to breast cancer awareness, not all brands are as loyal to the cause as they claim to be. To describe this problem, the Breast Cancer Action (BCA) group created the term “pinkwashing.”
Basically, this refers to companies that use the pink ribbon symbol of breast cancer charities as a strategic marketing technique to promote the publicity and sales of their products. In addition, many of these companies sell manufactured products that contain certain ingredients associated to the increased risk or development of breast cancer itself. To avoid purchasing these kinds of “pinkwashed” items, you should make sure to see exactly how much profit is donated to the cause and where it is going. A great resource to find more information on this topic is thinkbeforeyoupink.org.
The good news is, you can easily avoid this problem and still get incredibly awesome products that donate to the breast cancer cause. This kind of shopping is definitely not a guilty pleasure. So check out some of these products below to get started!
1. Fabletics
“Style That Supports” Collection (photo courtesy of www.fabletics.com)
20% of the proceeds from each outfit purchase in this collection go towards the CFDA’s Fashion Targets Breast Cancer initiative.
2. NFL Apparel
Breast Cancer Awareness Gear collection(photo courtesy of www.nflshop.com)
100% of this collection’s product sales go to the American Cancer Society.
3. Jane Iredale (photo courtesy of janeiredale.com)
Jane Iredale will donate all the proceeds from their lemongrass and rose sprays to Living Beyond Breast Cancer.
4. Alex and Ani (photo courtesy of www.alexandani.com)
“ALEX AND ANI will donate 20% of the purchase price from each St. Agatha charm sold, with a minimum donation of $10,000 during October 2017, to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).” (information courtesy of www.alexandani.com)
5. Ulta(photo courtesy of www.ulta.com)
100% of the purchases from a Cut for a Cause event and 50% of the purchases from the Ulta Beauty BCRF Collection are donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.