KFC & Komen - “Pinkwashing”?

By: Chris Palmedo | Posted on: April 23rd, 2010 | 4 comments | Share: Tweet This!
Categories: Disparities • Food & Nutrition • Public Health

KFC & Komen - “Pinkwashing”?

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We recently received an e-mail from people taking extreme exception to KFC’s (Kentucky Fried Chicken before they changed their name to remove emphasis on “Fried”) “Buckets for the Cure ” campaign to dedicate proceeds of its chicken sales to Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Their goal is to make the largest gift to Komen ever - $8.5 million if they reach their goal.

Sounds like a nice thing, right?

Not according to Breast Cancer Action, which has said that the campaign is “an especially tasteless example of pinkwashing—when a company purports to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink ribboned product, but manufactures products that are linked to the disease. Make no mistake—every pink bucket purchase will do more to benefit KFC’s bottom line than it will to cure breast cancer.”

One local public health advocate in Portland called it “beyond the pale.”

Another Portland area food and nutrition advocate said it’s “Un #@%$ believable.”

Oregon Public Health Institute CEO Mary Lou Hennrich said “this is one of the reasons that I have trouble believing that the food industry ‘really wants to help with our nation’s poor nutrition and obesity crisis.’”

Is it really that bad?

Is Kentucky Fried Chicken that evil?

Can’t they just go about their business selling buckets of chicken and providing money to the Komen Foundation without people crying FOUL?

What do you think?



4 Comments:

1  Posted by fendi fake on October 9th, 2010 at 11:03 PM

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2  Posted by Ethan on June 15th, 2010 at 03:33 PM

This is really not news. Komen has been in bed with corporations that are in the cancer business for quite some time . . . which is why they focus on early detection and aggressive treatment over finding and stopping the environmental factors that cause cancer in the first place. When they hand you a single-use plastic water bottle as you cross the finish line, look around and ask yourself if you just raced the Pinkwashing 500.

3  Posted by Randy Novak on April 29th, 2010 at 09:25 PM

Why not sell yellow packs of cigarettes to raise money for Livestrong? 

KFC cares as much about women as it does about chickens.

4  Posted by Geeta Kumar on April 23rd, 2010 at 11:57 AM

Body weight and weight gain are factors that affect breast cancer risk says the Susan G. Komen for the cure website. If their mission values education then it should choose it partners thoughtfully. Badly done. Credibility for dubious partnerships. Fair trade?



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