WERSHIP TEH PINKNESSEZ!!!!1!!!!!!!!!1

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, or as major consumer product manufacturers call it “Slap-a-pink-label-on-everything-so-people-will-think-we-care-and-they’ll-buy-lots-of-our-stuff-month.” I work in a grocery store and I have found it ridiculous the number of things that we are selling that have suddenly become “Aware.” I have nothing against the companies who are really trying to find a cure, and I applaud their efforts, but there is a point where it just spirals into ridiculousness how far some companies will go to make it look like they care. This is not counting merchandise designed solely for raising awareness. These bags for instance.

Hy-Vee itself has even gotten into the spirit of Pink Appreciation Month Breast Cancer Awareness Month, And have put up displays, brought in special merchandise, had special grocery bags created, and have even put pink labels on a bunch of their products. The only problem is, they didn’t even bother to add a ribbon so that people would know why the label is pink. If you weren’t aware of breast cancer by now, the choice of a pink label for these products is just bizarre. If they want awareness to be raised, they need to tell people why their chicken noodle soup is suddenly being packaged in a pink can.

In fairness to Hy-Vee, that last label is probably pink regardless of what month it is.
Tonight after work I went through every isle in Hy-Vee taking pictures of all the products that are suddenly aware.
I will start off by saying that I am giving Yoplait a complete pass, because they have had their pink lid promotion going on for years, and they are not one of the companies that has all of a sudden jumped on the pink bandwagon. I remember when they started, and it was long before the rest of these companies. I used to buy their yogurt for just about every break when I worked at Fareway, so I noticed when the lids changed. Oh, and Cherry is the best BTW.

Some of the products that have suddenly “Gone Pink” make a little bit of sense.

Breast cancer is primarily a woman’s disease after all, though if anything really needs awareness raised about it, it’s the number of men affected by the disease. Most people don’t have any idea that men can get breast cancer too.

Dannon really got into it. Pretty much all their products had pink labels. This also makes a small amount of sense. From what I’ve seen coming through the checkouts, women are more likely than men to buy yogurt. But then we get back to my other point. Who really needs to be made more aware of breast cancer? Maybe if they started putting Bud Light into pink cans…

Pepsi/Lays is also way into the pink movement. Which is not really surprising from such a big company.

Doctor Pepper 7up, wasn’t quite as committed. They just stuck ribbon stickers on their stuff. I think they want to people to think they care, but they don’t want to make a whole new label to prove it.

There were a few cereal with pink labels. Including this one, which led to me finding a whole bunch of similar labels.

Apparently General Mills decided to come up with their own slogan to help fight the battle. Yeah. Pink Together. So creative. *Rolls Eyes*

Other than these, the other products I found were pretty random.

I also found a couple that were just downright bizarre.

Onions? Kitty Crunchies? Yeah. They’re totally not cashing in on the fad with those!
I want to say that even though I find all this ridiculous I have nothing against those who have fought the fight, are fighting the fight, lost the fight, or are looking for a cure for breast cancer. It is a serious disease, but this seems to me to be the latest fad that’s “sweeping the nation” if you will. I don’t see much difference between this stuff and all the products that have “Gone Green.” I have nothing against helping the environment, and I am all for recycling, but all these big companies are doing is cashing in on the latest popular trends in order to make more money. I rather doubt that they give two figs about how aware people are of breast cancer, and they probably care even less about how green they are. If they really cared, they’d act more like Yoplait. Set up a good program and keep on making donations, regardless of what month it is. Go Yoplait!*

*No, Yoplait is not paying me to promote their yogurt.