In Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” the eponymous protagonist is obliged to whitewash a fence on a sumptuous summer day as punishment for playing hooky and fighting.
Tom “surveyed the fence” and “all gladness left him,” Twain wrote. Miraculously, it was at this “dark and hopeless moment” that clever Sawyer conceived “nothing less than a great, magnificent familiar.”
The article notes that women control between $0.70 and $0.85 of every household dollar spent, “so marketing in relation to women’s health is a logical business Inc.” — inspiration for the documentary of the same name — argued that the public’s perception of “the search for the cure” has been transformed from a grassroots campaign to a chi-chi “flavor of the promotions.”
For instance, how much money from a purchase actually goes toward breast cancer? Fox Home Entertainment sold “DVDs for the Cure” for $14.95, actually donating only 50 cents from each sale to Komen, according to BCAction.
What is the maximum amount that will be donated? BCAction reported that Give Hope Jeans donated net proceeds from each pair of jeans sold to Living Beyond Breast Cancer — capping their contributions, however, at $200,000.
And most importantly, what are companies doing to assure that its products are not actually contributing to the breast cancer epidemic? BCAction mentions that BMW, for example, gave $1 to Komen every time one of their cars was test-driven — even though pollutants found in car exhaust are linked to breast cancer.
Which begs the question: Are we increasing breast cancer awareness or just corporate profitability?
My mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2007, and I’ve never adopted the pink ribbon and other forms of breast cancer symbolism to substantiate my support of her.
My support isn’t symbolic — it’s literal.
By all means, we ought to think pink this October. But we ought to be sure to think before we pink, too.
 
Phil Sweeney is a 25-year-old English senior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_PhilSweeney.
 
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Contact Phil Sweeney at [email protected]