Comments on: Should Marketing Principles Be Applied to Disease?

By: Disease marketing? Sempre più pervasivo | .commEurope

Disease marketing? Sempre più pervasivo | .commEurope — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:38:19 +0000

[...] simil-medici supportano le campagne di marketing di prodotti e servizi. In ogni supermercato compaiono decine di prodotti che dichiarano di supportare a campagne di lotta contro malattie note oppure fanno leva sulle [...]

By: Breast Cancer Awareness Marketing has a Pink Problem | Scientopia Guests' Blog

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:14:22 +0000

[...] Lindsey B. alerted us to a newly published paper in the Journal of Marketing Research suggesting that the current approach to raising awareness of breast cancer hurts more than helps. You might have noticed, just maybe, I mean if you’ve been paying attention, that breast cancer has become associated with the color pink. [...]

By: Intergalactic human of mystery

Intergalactic human of mystery — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:48:25 +0000

I have some breast cancer themed bird food, which I always thought was odd.

By: Is “Save the Ta-tas” the New Feminism? I Hope Not. « of Heart and Mind

Is “Save the Ta-tas” the New Feminism? I Hope Not. « of Heart and Mind — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:37:45 +0000

[...] is great. But you don’t see them fighting for gender parity in sports reporting. Similarly, a myriad of corporations has taken up the cause of breast cancer in order to sell products (and supposedly raise money). [...]

By: Pink. » Sociological Images

Pink. » Sociological Images — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:34:46 +0000

[...] Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. Pink. [...]

By: Boobies Against Breast Cancer » Sociological Images

Boobies Against Breast Cancer » Sociological Images — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:53:06 +0000

[...] the amount of money people donate directly because they think that by buying the breast cancer cookies, cream cheese, combination locks, cat food, cookware, chewing gum, limo rides, and golf acce…, they’ve already done their [...]

By: Sociological Images » What We’ve Been Up To Behind Your Back (June 2009)

Sociological Images » What We’ve Been Up To Behind Your Back (June 2009) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:05:29 +0000

[...] Also in boobs,we added another example of breast cancer marketing, this time a breast cancer-themed limousine sent in by Steve W., to our post on the topic. [...]

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:07:40 +0000

This was just posted on PostSecret and reminded me specifically of this post on Sociological Images:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_a7jkcMVp5Vg/ShiC1gGq_jI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/hbU_II3kgvE/s1600-h/pink.jpg

Interesting gender stuff going on here.

By: sara

sara — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:38:00 +0000

I’m pretty sure the national obsession with breast cancer is a direct reaction to the fact that it used to be a taboo disease to discuss, and so women mobilized around it to make it visible and audible. And that spiralled.

By: pg

pg — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:27:48 +0000

I want a T-shirt that says “Save the ‘nads!”
or, “‘Nads are Rad!”

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:38:15 +0000

I agree with many of the other posters above when they said that in a society obsessed with women’s breasts, it seems pretty predictable that would transfer over to being obsessed with diseases involving those same breasts.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:52:45 +0000

My so glad someone else feels the same way as I do on the insane amount of breast cancer awareness merchandise available. I found some pink ribbon tissues and I stated “Now I can sneeze for a cure!”

You asked the question in your post: “Why does breast cancer get so much attention?” Honestly, I think it has to do with the fact that women spend money, and breast cancer is by and large a woman’s cancer so therefore they can get woman to spend money.

It’s all about money.

I’ve know women who will buy a product only due to the fact that it has a pink ribbon on it. And what’s sad is that some companies slap a pink ribbon on a product but may never donate a cent to any research groups.

By: Kelle

Kelle — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:45:43 +0000

Just a note, Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The genetics of it are actually fairly sketchy.

Type II diabetes is strongly genetic and heritable. Nobody actually knows for sure what causes type 2, and claiming it’s caused by obesity, eating sugar, not exercising, etc, is simply wrong. It’s believed there’s a “genetic strain” in which people are both fat and develop type 2 diabetes. Type 2 is very much a disease of ageing and one of the interesting theories researchers have found is that it’s extreme stress that can trigger it – stress basically wearing your body out faster than otherwise. Ignoring this fact in favor of OMG OBESITY = DIABEETUS does no one with type 2 diabetes any favours as it directs research in entirely the wrong direction. Losing weight may put type 2 diabetes into remission, but as the body adapts to lower weight or weight is regained, it often comes back.

As for breast cancer fundraising – read thinkbeforeyoupink.org for a lot of interesting thoughts on the pink campaign.

By: Bagelsan

Bagelsan — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:59:51 +0000

I wonder – does money really go specifically to breast cancer research? That is, can they look for cures specifically for breast cancer, or are they simply researching “cancer” in general

I don’t know about the funding, but as for the research side of things it is possible to research either cancer in general or breast cancer specifically. Or you can research breast cancer in particular in order to also find out more about cancer in general (or you can apply research on cancer in general to breast cancer specifically, too. Yay reciprocity.) But yeah, there is definitely research that is pretty breast cancer specific (like looking at BRCA, etc.) though I don’t know how funding from the campaign is divided up.

By: Bagelsan

Bagelsan — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:54:52 +0000

Stupid me: I understand that you’re upset (even though I *don’t* think that anyone was suggesting that overweight people *should* be blamed for their illnesses, just that they often are) but seriously, stop using depression and suicidal thoughts as a conversational bludgeon. They’re a serious problem that millions of people have to deal with every day, not a way for you to win a (straw man) argument on a blog.