Breast Cancer Action -- respected watchdog of the breast cancer movement -- is calling out money-making giants KFC and Susan G. Komen for the Cure for their egregious pinkwashing campaign "Buckets for the Cure." This partnership exploits breast cancer and does the most harm in low income communities already disproportionately affected by health issues like obesity, diabetes, as well as breast cancer.
"Buckets for the Cure" urges consumers to "help make the largest single donation to end breast cancer forever." Make no mistake -- every pink bucket purchase will do more to benefit KFC's bottom line than it will to cure cancer.
Pinkwashing is a term coined by BCA to describe when a company purports to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink product, but manufactures products that are linked to the disease. BCA urges consumers to ask critical questions before purchasing pink products that claim to donate money to breast cancer research or prevention.
"KFC locates its stores in the poorest communities where people have limited access to healthy food," says BCA's executive director, Barbara Brenner. "Komen claims to care about low income women. Yet they partnered with a corporation on a campaign that will severely aggravate the condition of women's health in these communities, not improve it."
BCA's "What the Cluck?" campaign encourages people to write to KFC and Komen urging them to end the "Buckets for the Cure" campaign. Over 1,000 people have taken action on the campaign at http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/.
"People are outraged. The response to our "What the Cluck?" campaign has been overwhelming," said Brenner.