Posted on October 6, 2022

We’re breaking down how rampant, unregulated capitalism enables profiteering off public health crises and social causes like breast cancer.

Get the facts on each of the industry tactics we’re identifying and exposing in our 2022 Think Before You Pink® campaign, “A (R)Evolution” and view and share our social share graphics.

We’re calling on breast cancer activists to join us to “Educate. Organize. And Take Action” this October. Use these facts and resources to learn more about late-stage capitalism and breast cancer, and share them with your community to spread the word.

How Late-Stage Capitalism Enables Profiteering off Breast Cancer

Late-stage capitalism: Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership, free market principles, and the primary motive to profit. “Late-stage” capitalism (also called end-stage capitalism, or late capitalism) is an economic and cultural term used to refer to “absurdities, contradictions, crises, injustices, inequality, and exploitation created by modern business development.”¹

Within this system, the industry tactics we’re exposing are the Manipulation of Media, Marketing, and Advertising, Disinformation and the Suppression of Scientific Evidence, and Political Influence and Interference.

The Manipulation of Media, Marketing, and Advertising

Cause marketers exploit the constituencies they claim to serve (such as people living with breast cancer), turning harsh human realities into a saleable commodity. Direct-to-consumer advertising by Big Pharma plays to the hopes and fears of ailing individuals by presenting biased, over-simplified information focused on possible outcomes while ignoring or downplaying the seriousness of side effects.

Facts:

  • Over 90% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that supports social or environmental issues. It’s no wonder corporations appropriate social causes for financial gain.²
  • In 2020, Big Pharma spent $6.58 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising.³
  • In 2019, health and pharmaceutical companies spent almost $1 billion on Facebook mobile advertisements alone.⁴

Direct-to-consumer advertising by Big Pharma plays to the hopes and fears of ailing individuals by presenting biased, over-simplified information focused on possible outcomes while ignoring or downplaying the seriousness of side effects. 

Disinformation and the Suppression of Scientific Evidence

For-profit corporations have been found to suppress scientific information that links their products to increased breast cancer risk, so that they can continue to grow their profits. Worse yet, the regulatory agencies that are tasked with monitoring these corporations often turn a blind eye to these practices as capitalism has metastasized to normalize profit as the ultimate goal, ignoring community safety, public health, and the right to live free of toxic environmental exposures.

Facts:

  • Products you wear and use every day may be harmful to your health. Companies have the ability to omit toxic and harmful cancer-causing ingredients under “Trade Secrets.”⁵
  • Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that are allowed to be kept secret because of their inherent economic value – i.e., profitability.⁶

Example:

  • A 3M-supported study gave dying cancer patients extremely high doses of PFOA, a well-known PFAS associated with many health harms, despite scant evidence that it would help their cancer or improve their quality of life. Results from this unethical research were never published, and to date, data about the patients’ cancer has never been presented.⁷

Political Influence and Interference

Under capitalism in this country, corporate stakeholders can be appointed to regulatory agencies, and people from regulatory agencies often leave to become lobbyists for the corporate sector they once regulated. This “revolving door” practice is better-regulated in many countries but it thrives under capitalism. This often leads to “regulatory capture” which occurs when an agency that exists to serve public interest instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups within an industry.

Fact:

  • In 2021, Pharmaceutical companies spent $356 Million on lobbyists to ensure decisions are made in their interest – even if that means drugs and treatments aren’t affordable, efficient, or actually safe.⁸

Share these resources with your network

Part I – The Manipulation of Media, Marketing, and Advertising

Part II – Disinformation and the Suppression of Scientific Evidence

Part III – Political Influence and Interference

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_capitalism
² https://www.amraandelma.com/cause-marketing-statistics/
³ https://www.statista.com/statistics/686906/pharma-ad-spend-usa/#:~:text=It%20was%20calculated%20that%20in,sector%20spent%206.56%20billion%20dollars.
⁴ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/03/facebook-pharma-ads/
⁵ https://theintercept.com/2019/08/12/3m-cancer-patient-study/)
⁶ https://www.safecosmetics.org/blog/do-you-know-whats-really-in-your-signature-scent-why-fragrance-disclosure-should-be-mandatory/
⁷ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secret
⁸ https://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/layers-of-lobbying/state-and-federal-lobbying