Slacktivism

"Like and share this status to help fight Breast Cancer, Autism, Alzheimer's, AIDS, Childhood Obesity, Gingivitis, Athlete's Foot, Adult Diaper Rash, and Really Bad Boo-Boos."

Today's post is along the same lines as my annoyance with the Pink Ribbon Fad, but in this case it is limited to just Facebook users.

"If you know someone who is fighting, has fought, Is winning, or has won, is losing, or has lost, the battle of Bee-Sting allergies, then share this status for one hour. 99.9% of people refuse to share it. Will you?"

These posts annoy me because it implies that anyone who won't re-post it as their status is a heartless fiend who doesn't give rodent's rear about helpless Bee-Sting victims. It makes people feel guilty, then they re-post it, and then their friends see it, feel guilty, and also re-post it. In less than a day your Facebook news-feed has been transformed into an endless sea of guilt inducing drivel about Bee-Stings. This does absolutely nothing to help Bee-Sting victims and it makes you look like a sheep.

One of my favorite YouTube channels, Blimey Cow, made a video about this very thing, and I thought it was so funny, that it would make the perfect compliment to my post.



I didn't write this post to vilify people who legitimately care about any of these causes. If you or someone you love have been affected by one or more of the diseases that Facebook cares so much about, then by all means, get out there and spread the word! But changing your Facebook status doesn't do anything.

Awareness

As you are probably AWARE, I am really tired of all the AWAREness campaigns that currently plague our nation. I’ve written about it before, most recently HERE. Most of them, breast cancer awareness in particular, have gotten to the point where they are no longer creating awareness, they have just become a fashion trend, what with all the fancy AWARE jewelry, the AWARE purses, the AWARE t-shirts, and countless other AWARE items that everyone knows perfectly well what they represent, and thus can no longer be said to be creating awareness. That’s why I found today’s F-Minus strip to be so hilarious. It's funny because it’s true! :D

Pinkness Awareness Month

Longtime readers of my blog may recall that a year ago I wrote about how October was Breast Cancer Awareness month, and that the store where I work had been overtaken by pink ribbons. If you’d like to read that post, you can find it HERE. This year is no different.

I thought about doing the same thing this year as I did last year, but when I saw the following item, I thought, “This is all I need to show how stupid this has become.”

Really? REALLY?! You can NOT tell me with a straight face that this was a coincidence!

I still feel the same way as I felt last year. All these “Aware” items, do nothing to raise awareness. It’s just a way for these companies to get more people to buy their products under the guise of charity.

What’s worse, is that since last year I have learned terrible things about the biggest breast cancer charity, the Susan G Koman Foundation. They have become nothing more that a giant greedy business. They have gone so far as to SUE other small charities for using the phrase “For the Cure” in their promotions. Charities that have nothing to do with breast cancer even! I will link you to two articles so you can see for yourself.

~http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/08/05/pm-susan-g-komen-fights-for-trademark/~

~http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/komen-foundation-charities-cure_n_793176.html?ref=fb&src=sp~

In conclusion, if you REALLY care about finding a cure for breast cancer, then seek out a GOOD charity, and donate directly to them. Money given to the Susan G Koman foundation is pretty much wasted. They do not use their donations wisely, and they use money that has been donated to them to finance their legal battles. If you really want a pink box of mushrooms, then go ahead and buy it, but if you ask me, this fad is just getting ridiculous. I hope I won’t be writing another of these posts a year from now, but something tells me I probably will.

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.