Women Lifestyle, Fashion, Health, Beauty and Personality

Countless companies have created exclusive cosmetics, apparel and even food to celebrate October as Breast Cancer Awareness month. From compacts to cookies, many of these items come in pink or are festooned with the symbol of awareness, pink ribbon, and serve as reminders of the breast cancer disease. Whether you’re at the convenience store, the supermarket or the department store this month, you’ll be able to support breast cancer research by shopping pink. It???s no surprise if October has you seeing pink. Pink vacuums, pink candies, pink airplanes ??? you name it. A percentage of sales of each item goes to breast cancer research or programs around the country.

If pink is your color, October is your month. It began in 1992, when Estee Lauder cosmetic counters first gave away loops of pink ribbon to raise awareness of the disease that the American Cancer Society estimates will kill 40,970 women in 2006. Since then, the pink ribbon has given way to myriad pink products, developed by everyone from Pioneer to Ford Motor.
Breast cancer awareness was a focus for Evelyn Lauder, senior corporate vice president of the Estee Lauder companies.
She created the first pink ribbon in 1992, along with Alexandra Penney, who was then editor of Self magazine. Today, Lauder’s breast cancer awareness campaign — active in more than 40 countries — has distributed more than 60 million pink ribbons and information packets about breast cancer. Lauder said, “Wear a pink ribbon, tell everyone you care about to get a mammogram and practice breast self-examination. And make a donation to help fund breast cancer research.”

The Komen Foundation has been at the forefront of marketing efforts for more than 15 years, cause marketing manager Carrie Hodges said. The foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary next year. Founder and Peoria native Nancy Brinker lost her sister, Susan Goodman Komen, to breast cancer in 1980. Komen???s cause-marketing department has a staff of about 15 people, and the efforts of selling specialized items like Ford-sponsored scarves and Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks bring about $30 million into the foundation each year. They???ve had partnerships with companies like New Balance and Pier 1 Imports for 15 years.
As part of the program, companies, organizations, and individuals nationwide are picking one day in October and urging their associates and friends to demonstrate their support by making a $5 donation and dressing up in pink. Read more of Komen Passionately Pink program.

This season, there’s a pink external 6G hard drive from Seagate (SGX) that will benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Delta Airlines is flying a pink plane to raise awareness for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation???and is selling pink lemonade to raise money for the organization on domestic flights. And Campbell Soup (CPB) has produced special-edition cans of condensed tomato and chicken noodle soups, trading in its iconic red-and-white label for pink-and-white (with a pink ribbon symbol, too) this October. Also Pink Pioneer Inno XM2GO Player at retail price of $349.99.
The newly renamed Macy???s department store (formerly L.S. Ayres) in Glenbrook Square will join others of the chain stores nationwide in raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Many of the products seem incongruous: poker sets, vacuum cleaners, even martini glasses (although some studies have shown that alcohol consumption can increase the risk of developing the disease).

Bath & Body Works is also doing its part for breast cancer awareness by introducing the In Touch Breast Self-Exam Glove. Experts agree that early detection is every woman’s best defense against breast cancer, and this glove helps make self-exam easier and more effective. The glove is filled with a pink liquid that heightens fingertip sensation, making it easier to feel irregularities within the breast. The glove also comes with detailed instructions and a calendar to ensure you perform your exam once a month.
For each glove sold, one dollar will be donated to the American Breast Cancer Foundation, and Bath & Body Works is forgoing a profit, offering the glove for $9.

But behind the corporate goodwill and fundraising, like today???s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at St. Petersburg???s Vinoy Park, ripples of dissent are growing about the commercialization of breast cancer. Some survivors and cancer groups say they are pleased the campaign has placed the disease in the forefront of women???s minds.
But they believe the crusade against cancer should be less about shopping and more about preventing and finding the cause of the disease that kills about 40,000 each year, said Breast Cancer Action, based in San Francisco.

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