the recovery of the operation for marketing purposes can hurt

Health professionals, associations and former breast cancer patients denounce an awareness campaign used increasingly for commercial purposes by large companies and cutesy marketing around the disease.

“It was so dripping“. Thursday October 10, 2024, Chloé, a 47-year-old director from Marseille, remembers entering a company cafeteria as part of a shoot. What a bad surprise it was when the director notes that the place has been entirely decorated in pink”with tagada strawberries, a basket filled with sweets and an inscription ‘pink October decoration“, she says.

Deeply uncomfortable with this setting, Chloé remembers her impression “to attend a wedding in a party hall” in the midst of an awareness campaign against breast cancer. Despite everything, the director wonders: will this sale be intended for an organization fighting against cancer? Negative, according to the saleswoman present on site.

She, who was affected by breast cancer, has felt a form of anger since her visit to the cafeteria: “TAll those who plaster pink backgrounds, pride themselves on putting pink icing on their dripping pastries, and blow up balloons like they’re celebrating a birthday. Without awareness signs, and without donating any of their profits. Cancer is not a party, cancer is not rosy, and is certainly not the subject of flashy and disgusting marketing reappropriation“, she wrote on Facebook.

Disney-style pastel pink marketing, gendered injunction and above all commercialism… critiques emerge, with difficulty, on Pink October, in a context where the countryside is over-represented and valued by public authorities. In 2019, in a carte blanche published on its site, family planning also denounced a form of glamorization of the disease and the capitalization of awareness by large groups: “The breast symbolizes woman, love, motherhood, sexuality… Lungs, intestines, prostates do not invite the same imagination! No wonder social marketing chose breast cancer over any other cancer. So much the better for funding research and associations fighting against breast cancer but… From the start, in the USA, Pink October has partnered with large cosmetic companies and pharmaceutical laboratories to carry out its actions“.

This commercialism also makes Caroline Bellegarde, co-founder of the “Gang of Shaved Heads”, a Marseille association bringing together young women affected by the disease. She also denounces abusive practices by certain companies which appropriate breast cancer for monetary purposes: “Pink October has become a selling point. Recently, in a store, I saw cashiers with a pink t-shirt and with a small piggy bank at their side for an association. When I ask them if they know what Pink October is, they had no idea.”

When she herself was fighting against the disease, Caroline also remembers a form of exploitation of the patients’ experiences by large groups without any financial remuneration behind: “I was asked to travel for a national advertising spot without even paying the train ticket!“. On Instagram, she summarizes this marketing deemed outrageous as follows: “Some want us to consume while others consume“.

This appropriation by companies questions also Cécile Bour, radiologist and member of the association “Cancer rose“who campaigns for information”fair” et “objective“about mammography screening.”A large group like Cora offers articles with a portion of the sales going to associations or foundations, but for what research exactly? Why are women pushed to run and sell without knowing exactly what this money will be used for? If this cause is so important, why is it only given 0.50 cents of a sale?“, she gets annoyed.

This marketization and injunction constitutes violence for women affected by the disease. They can in particular participate in denying the traumatic experiences behind these journeys: “This can be seen as a feeling of guilt to normalize and live well these long journeys, this traumatic irruption in their life of the lifting of the repression of their mortality, the aggressive ignorance of the social impact on the life of cancer when we know that more one in four women live alone with cancer or are left during the illness“‘, explains Marie Ghigho, psychologist. So, is it possible to do better? Chloé calls for more sober awareness and especially focused on women under the age of 50.rather than spending energy on decorations“. For his part, Doctor Bour recommends more direct action with patients without a financial intermediary: “If you know someone affected, offer to go shopping or take them to the movies“. She also campaigns for informed information about cancer, particularly around the issue of screening, which has both benefits and limitations: “It is necessary that fair and just information be distributed to women“, declares the radiologist. Loyal, fair, informed…but above all not rosy.