October is breast cancer awareness month. Everywhere you turn there are pink logos on EVERYTHING from water bottles, to clothes, pens, candy bars.....basically anything a company can slap a pink ribbon on, they will. The ribbon is accompanied with something saying that part of the proceeds benefit breast cancer research.

I’ve come here to inform you that this is all basically a money making scam unfortunately.

My mom has stage 4 breast cancer and this is her second time having it. She’s been on an 8 year journey that is, sadly, coming to an end. She is (was) a financial analyst/accountant for 30 years so she’s very aware of how companies spend money.

The pink ribbon campaign preys on two things: emotions, and, lets face it, everyone likes boobs 😂. A company saying a portion of profits benefit research really means maybe 5-20% of the profit.....not gross sales, just the profit. The average person would be very likely to look at two separate lip balms and choose the one with a pink ribbon because it’s “the right thing to do”.

I also had a professor in college who had her doctorate in sociology and her dissertation was the psychology behind breast cancer non-profit organisations. They are basically run my multimillionaire housewives who definitely earn massive income from running the organisations.

So, having said this, the only way to truly know where your money is going is to research it. When in doubt, avoid the “big name” organisations and stick to the fundraisers that are through local sources (local cancer clinics, for example). Don’t let billion dollar companies slap a pink ribbon on something just to boost their October profits.

Now that I’ve said all of that, will you change your view of breast cancer awareness month? Does it change how you spend your money? Are you shocked or surprised?