Today I was a guest on The Good Green Witch show. As usual it was great to let off some steam and rant about something that really gets to me. Well you may know how I think Greenwashing is bad but this whole pinkwashing thing is just disgusting!

Let me start by giving you the definition (as defined on Think Before You Pink):

Pinkwasher: (pink’-wah-sher) noun. A company that purports to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribboned product, but manufactures products that are linked to the disease.

I recommend going to Think Before You Pink website to learn more about what they are doing. If you want to support research for breast cancer try just donating to one of these top charities for breast cancer. Lets face it the more pink products we buy , the more companies will make them. That is not a win/win by the way, it’s more of a lose/lose. Heres why- just because there is a ribbon on a product or its painted pink that doesn’t mean any money goes towards a cure and if it does it’s proportionally small compared to their profits from sales of said products. And the biggest part that just makes me want to scream is that some of these products are actually linked to the cause of the cancer in the first place. Really think about that for a minute. Companies selling cancer causing products claiming to support finding a cure for cancer.

OUTRAGEOUS!

Outrageous and sad but not surprising. Corporations violate human rights, civil rights, the environment and everything else in between so I imagine exploiting consumers good intentions is just another day at the office.

So to you marketing people and decision makers for this type of branding I just want to say shame on you. Many people who buy pink products in support do so because they lost someone they loved to breast cancer. Exploiting that for profit is despicable. Another reason I will not be supporting your business.

So what are some of these products linked to cancer? They are all around us. A good summary is on the story of cosmetics. Another one is BPA in plastics, toxic chemicals in your cleaning products, the hormones in the meats you buy, etc. Basically the same offenders that are destroying our  planet are destroying our health. So save the planet, save yourself (or someone you love). It’s time we stop blindly supporting companies who knowingly put us at risk purely for profit. If we don’t buy it, they won’t make it. And yes, there are safer healthier alternatives to most of these products. Thats what I have been trying to tell you for years now.

Here is the archive of the show, for your listening pleasure: Good Green Witch-Pinkwashing