Pinkwashing:Think before you pink.

Jocelyn Jarvis, Cindy Luong, Sean WhelanCOMM 338

Pinkwashing:(pink’-wah-sher) noun.

A company or organization that claims to care about breast

cancer by promoting a pink ribbon product, but at the same

time produces, manufactures and/or sells products that are

linked to the disease.

Key Ethical Issues

• Pinkwashing and its hypocrisy

• Manipulating consumers : taking advantage of the kind-

hearted and the uninformed

• Commercialization of the disease

Surprising Facts

Not the first time…

Think Before You Pink

“We make this information available to our constituents, respecting that they are intelligent consumers who make informed decisions about the use of products based on evidence” - Susan G. Komen Foundation

Think Before You Pink

Ethical Framework & Solution• Integrative Social Contracts Theory

– Moral free space is limited by hypernorms

– Hypernorms which guide consumers purchasing “pink” products

• The right to well being and avoiding unnecessary harm

• Susan G. Komen for the Cure should demand that TPR holdings recall the

original version of the perfume

• Raise its ethical standards and provide a benchmark for other,

smaller foundations dedicated to the same cause

Think before you pink.

Thank-you for your time!

Discussion Questions• Has the focus shifted away from breast cancer awareness to

the commercialism and consumerism?

• The “Queen’s wears Pink” campaign could have potentially

been an example of pink noise. Where did the money actually

go?