Overview

Think Before You Pink® launched in 2002 in response to the growing concern about the number of pink ribbon products on the market. The campaign calls for more transparency and accountability by companies that take part in breast cancer fundraising, and encourages consumers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions.

What is Pinkwashing?

The term that started a movement. Breast Cancer Action coined the term pinkwashing as part of our Think Before You Pink® campaign.

Pinkwasher: (pink’-wah-sher) noun. A company or organization that claims to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same time produces, manufactures and/or sells products that are linked to the disease.

Breast Cancer Action

 

Remember these highlights?

Our Think Before You Pink® campaigns have been featured on the Colbert Report and The Daily Show.

The History of the Pink Ribbon

To much of the media and the world at large, the pink ribbon is the breast cancer movement. Where did the ribbon come from, where is it going, and what has it meant along the way?

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Think Before You Pink® Campaigns
Each October, during “Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” corporate giants, mega-nonprofits, and government leaders claim to care about breast cancer, but do nothing to stop this devastating disease while wearing pink ribbons and making empty promises and proclamations. READ MORE

Think Before You Pink® Resources
Any company can put the pink ribbon on any product, regardless of how much money – if any – goes to breast cancer. And some companies actually put pink ribbons on products linked to cancer – a practice we call pinkwashing. Be sure to ask these questions before you buy pink. READ MORE

History of the Pink Ribbon
From the beginning, the pink ribbon connoting breast cancer awareness has been embroiled in controversy. READ MORE