Breast Cancer Awareness Month
This international campaign creates awareness about breast cancer and promotes breast cancer screenings and fundraising.
This international campaign creates awareness about breast cancer and promotes breast cancer screenings and fundraising.
Renee Harleston
Reviewer URLDate: October
This international campaign creates awareness about breast cancer and promotes breast cancer screenings and fundraising.
Origin
The origins of Breast Cancer Awareness Month date back to October 1985. The American Cancer Society partnered with Imperial Chemical Industries Pharmaceuticals, a British chemical company, to raise awareness about the disease. Breast cancer had risen to national prominence when First Lady Betty Ford completed breast cancer treatment in the 1970s.
Breast cancer, like many causes, has its own awareness ribbons. The most well-known breast cancer awareness ribbon is pink. However, its first iteration was a peach ribbon created in 1991 by activist Charlotte Haley. She created the ribbon to spread awareness about breast cancer research funding. At the time, only 5% of all cancer funding went towards breast cancer research. Haley mailed the ribbon and funding information to prominent women and handed them out locally.
SELF magazine partnered with cosmetics giant Estée Lauder for an issue on breast cancer, and editor Alexandra Penney reached out to Haley to secure use of the ribbon. Haley declined, citing concerns with the corporate nature of the venture.
Unable to secure Haley’s participation, businesswoman and philanthropist Evelyn H. Lauder and SELF magazine debuted their own pink ribbon. This ribbon is now the most well-known symbol of breast cancer awareness. The Estee Lauder Corporation has created numerous global breast cancer awareness campaigns as part of their corporate philanthropic contributions.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation (named in honor of the late Susan G. Komen) is the largest source of non-profit breast cancer research funding and partners with many brands. Many of these corporate partners run breast cancer awareness campaigns for their consumer products during the month of October.
The intimate ties between breast cancer funding and corporate partnership has become a source of criticism for breast cancer foundations in recent years. Many of these ventures are accused of “pinkwashing.” Gayle A. Sulik MA, Ph.D., research associate at the University at Albany (SUNY), has written extensively on the subject and published a book about the issue in 2011 called Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women's Health.
Traditions
One of the best ways to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month is to research your eligibility for mammograms or other breast cancer screenings. If you are eligible, get screened. Anyone can develop breast cancer, although it is more common in people assigned female at birth. The American Cancer Society has robust screening guidelines. Mammograms are recommended every year for people assigned female at birth over the age of 45.