Contact: Angela Wall
(415) 243-9301 awall@bcaction.org
www.bcaction.org
www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org

KFC’s new pinkwashing campaign to “raise money for breast cancer” is half-cooked!

San Francisco, CA: Breast Cancer Action–the respected watchdog of the breast cancer movement– is calling out two money-making giants, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Susan G. Komen For the Cure, for their egregious pinkwashing campaign “Buckets for the Cure.”  BCA warns that this partnership exploits breast cancer and will do the most harm in low income communities that are already disproportionately affected by health issues like obesity and diabetes, as well as breast cancer.

KFC’s new “Buckets for the Cure” campaign is an especially tasteless example of pinkwashing. The company urges consumers to “help make the largest single donation to end breast cancer forever,” partly through the sale of pink buckets of their chicken. 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. It describes the situation when a company purports to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink product, but manufactures products that are linked to the disease, we call that pinkwashing. 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 for the Cure claims to care about low income women. Yet they have partnered with a corporation on a campaign that will severely aggravate the condition of women’s health in these communities, not improve it.”

Since its creation in 2002, BCA’s Think Before You Pinkä campaign has been urging consumers to scrutinize pink ribbon marketing and to take action when necessary.

Using web-based tools, consumers can send an email to KFC and Komen For the Cure urging them to end the “Buckets for the Cure” Campaign.

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Breast Cancer Action (www.bcaction.org)—is a national non-profit education and advocacy organization that does not accept funding from pharmaceutical companies or any other organizations that profit from or contribute to the breast cancer epidemic.