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Pinkwashing in cause marketing
Komen is a key entity in the controversy over pinkwashing. The term "pinkwashing" has been used to describe two different situations; 1) organizations getting disproportionately large amounts of publicity for donating very little, and 2) organizations that use the pink ribbon to promote products that may be cancer causing.

Donation Criticisms
Komen benefits from corporate partnerships, receiving over $55 million a year from 216 corporate sponsors. However, critics say many of these promotions are deceptive to consumers and benefit the companies more than the charity.

Some campaigns require that consumers mail proof of purchase for a promoted item before the manufacturer donates a few cents per purchase to charity; some have a cap on the maximum amount donated, with all sales beyond this fixed limit benefiting only the company, not the promoted cause. Since their Save Lids to Save Lives campaign began in 1998, Yoplait has donated more than $25 million to Komen. In 2010 their annual maximum commitment was raised to $1.6 million. In return, a major sponsor such as Yoplait obtains an exclusive contract; no other yogurt manufacturer (such as Dreyer's, who inquired in 2000) has the opportunity to use the branding. In 2002, credit card operator American Express launched a "Charge for a Cure" campaign which claimed that "in the search for a cure, every dollar counts." The amount donated per qualifying transaction, regardless of purchase amount, was one penny.

In 2006 Major League Baseball partnered with Koman by selling and donating amounts from pink MLB Louisville Slugger bats, pink baseballs, and necklaces sold. On mother's day, breast cancer survivors are eligible to be used as bat girls in games that pink bats are used. MLB is a $1.2 Billion industry, donates around $100,000 a year. In 2012, WWE promoted breast cancer awareness by adorning their sets with pink ribbons with a pink middle rope on the ring, filming numerous PSAs and selling special John Cena "Rise Above Cancer" merchandise. A one million dollar donation from WWE was presented to Susan G. Komen representatives in an in-ring ceremony during the October 29, 2012 episode of Raw. The amount of the donation during the campaign has been criticized as inconsequential for the WWE based on the amount made from moving the merchandise. The timing of the campaign preceded the 2012 U.S. Senate Elections, where WWE Chairman Vince McMahon’s wife Linda unsuccessfully ran for the seat of Connecticut as part of the Republican Party.

Health Criticisms
Several water bottle retailers have partnered with the Komen Foundation. Single use plastic water bottles commonly contain BPA, which has been linked to breast cancer tumor growth. For the 2008 model year, the Ford Motor Company built a branded limited edition of 2500 Ford Mustang motorcars with a "Warriors in Pink" package as part of their long-running association with Komen; an additional 1000 were offered for 2009's model year. A longitudinal study found that women employed in the automotive plastics industry are almost five times as likely to develop breast cancer, prior to menopause, as women in a control group.

In April 2010, Komen paired with fast food restaurant chain KFC to offer "Buckets for the Cure," a promotion in which fried and grilled chicken was sold in pink branded buckets. The collaboration garnered criticism from media outlets including The Colbert Report and Bitch magazine, and raised criticisms about the promotion of unhealthy eating habits and obesity, since obesity itself contributes to breast cancer. KFC contributed over $4.2 million to Komen, the largest single contribution in the organization's history. The partnership with KFC, which has since ended, allowed Komen "to reach many millions of women that they had been unable to reach before," said Brinker.

In April 2011, Komen introduced its own perfume brand, "Promise Me", promoted by Komen CEO Nancy Brinker on the Home Shopping Network, only to encounter opposition due to coumarin, oxybenzone, toluene and galaxolide as potentially harmful ingredients. Komen stated its intention to have the product reformulated but has refused to withdraw existing stocks of the "Promise Me" product from distribution.