Along the month of October, we can find pink ribbons everywhere. That’s reminds us to race, drive, cook and shop for breast cancer. But where and who did the pink ribbon at the beginning?
In the early 1990s, 68-year-old Charlotte Haley began manufactured peach ribbons by hand in her home. Her family all had breast cancer. She circulated thousands of peach ribbons at groceries with cards that said: “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion, only 5 % goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon.”
As the word spread, executives from Estée Lauder and Self magazine asked Haley for permission to use her ribbon. Haley refused, and Self magazine was startled by Haley’s answer. “She wanted nothing to do with us. Said we were too commercial.” But Estée Lauder and Self magazine really wanted to have her ribbon. They consulted their lawyers and were advised to come up with another color. They chose pink a color that focus groups say is ‘comforting, soothing, and healing’. In a year Charlotte Haley’s peach ribbon was history, and the pink ribbon became the worldwide symbol for breast cancer.
Later pink ribbon is not just a really ribbon. In 1993 Estée Lauder introduced a heart-shaped compact with an enameled pink ribbon design, profits to go to its Breast Cancer Research Fund. Carolee Jewelry designed another one—a female runner in midstride, flowing loop ribbon in hand. The Susan G. Komen Foundation began offering a pink rhinestone brooch. Nightshirts, teddy bears, angel statuettes, credit cards, sports clothes, Daytimers all hit the market and, with increasing speed, other companies joined in, each offering its own version of the traditional ribbon. December 1996 found the New York Times Magazine labeling breast cancer “this year’s hot charity.”
Today there are 80 to 100 companies involved, and that’s only the ones big enough to get on your radar screen.
Now breast cancer pink ribbon has become the darling of corporate America. Companies use the pink ribbon to sell their products and boost their image with consumers as they boost their bottom line. Meanwhile, breast cancer rates continue to rise every year. Ending the breast cancer epidemic will take more than just pink ribbons and awareness.
2 Comments
You know, I really never knew the whole story. I think I actually prefer the peach ribbon. it has no gender ties or really anything in particular associated with it. I agree with her though that it might have become too commercial, but she should have known, they can never be stopped.
Thanks for the history lesson, now I know the full story.