By KR, Executive Director
Think Before You PinkĀ® is anĀ award-winning corporate accountability campaignĀ that Breast Cancer Action started in 2002 in response to pink ribbon culture and breast cancer āawarenessā month.
When we launched our first industry-disrupting campaign,Ā pink ribbons were everywhere.
Every year, in the name of “breast cancer awareness,” corporations slapped pink ribbons on their products starting mid-summer,Ā touting them for months while lining their pockets.
In response, we coined the termĀ pinkwashingĀ andĀ paved the way for people to identify and call out all sorts of consumption-driven corporate nonsense, like pinkwashing, greenwashing, and rainbow-washing.
We changed the landscape, and alongside breast cancer activists nationwide, weāve altered the way pink ribbons have been used ever since, by demanding greater transparency and accountability.
Think Before You PinkĀ® has been carried out by questioning awareness campaigns, scrutinizing corporate partnerships, calling for transparency in fund allocation, critical evaluation of research, informing our community, and advocating for systemic change.
This campaign has always been bigger than pink ribbons.Ā Political educationĀ has remained, and continues to be, a core part of this campaign.Ā Political education has formed the foundation of breast cancer activism, galvanizing our community and people impacted by this disease across the country to take collective action to address and end the breast cancer crisis.
How BCAction defines Going Rogue: To behave in a way that is unconventional, rebellious, or independent; runs contrary to established expectations and norms; especially by disregarding the usual way of doing something.
Weāre ready to break new ground again, and weāreĀ expanding Think Before You PinkĀ® to strengthen our political education programming.
Think Before You Pink Goes RogueĀ is a political education campaign that connects the dots between environmental racism, fossil fuel divestment, and the politics of breast cancer.
Join us throughout OctoberĀ as we ramp up our community engagement and align ourĀ shared understandings of the politics of breast cancer, toward the goal of building the collective power necessary to achieve health justice.
Together, weāll explore the intersections of:
It is crucial for us to be aligned around the politics of breast cancer in order for us toĀ build collective power and effectively advocate for systemic change. By connecting the dots across these core topics, weāll suggest new and meaningful ways we canĀ TAKE ACTIONĀ together to address and end breast cancer.
See the full campaign details on our website.
By shifting the norms of our annual campaign this year and growing our political education offerings, weāre doing what weāve always done āĀ staying at the forefront of the breast cancer movementĀ and continuing to push the boundaries as to what falls within the realm of breast cancer activism.
Join us this October!Ā Read the full campaign details, join us each week as new content launches, and follow us onĀ FacebookĀ andĀ Instagram, so that you don’t miss the latest updates. Together, we’ll go beyond “awareness” this October, and we’ll do more, byĀ taking collective actionĀ to address and end the breast cancer crisis.
Thank you for supportingĀ Think Before You PinkĀ®Ā and for sharing in the vision of a world where people and communities are healthy, liberated, and free from breast cancer.