Critical questions to ask about pink ribbon products

On October first, I wrote a post about the overwhelming amount of pink ribbon products, and how you should question how much money from each sale is donated to which organization(s), and where the money is spent (Locally? Nationally? Internationally?).

A list of BlogHer blogs posting about about breast cancer and women's health led me to a post by MotherPie about shopping for a cause, which led me to the Think Before You Pink website, which lists some more critical questions to ask when buying pink ribbon products:

  • What is the maximuim amount that will be spent? (some companies will only donate up to a maximum amount, no matter how many items are sold)
  • How much money was spent marketing the product (vs. the amount donated to the cause)?
  • What is the company doing to assure that its products are not contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?
If you don't receive satisfactory answers to your questions, consider whether your money would be better spent by donating directly to a breast cancer organization which funds programs that you support.

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2 comments:

  1. Great post. These are very important questions. I thought you'd be interested in two posts on my blog about this topic. The first is about the M&M's deal:

    http://donttellthedonor.blogspot.com/2006/09/658172-pounds-of-mms.html

    The second is about the Campbell's soup promotion:

    http://donttellthedonor.blogspot.com/2006/10/pink-ribbon-cans-double-sales-of.html

     
  2. It's interesting to see the numbers for the Campbell's soup, and the M&Ms promotion. Thanks for posting the links!