Melania Trump club

Melania Trump club

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Pink ribbon

Pink ribbon is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink ribbons, and the color pink in general, identify the wearer or promoter with the breast cancer brand and express moral support for women with breast cancer.
Pink ribbons are most commonly seen during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.




History


The first known use of a pink ribbon in connection with breast cancer awareness was in the fall of 1991, when the Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to participants in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors.
The pink ribbon was adopted as the official symbol of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month the next year, in 1992. The pink ribbon was derived from the popular red ribbon for AIDS awareness. Alexandra Penney, the editor-in-chief of the women's health magazine Self, and breast cancer survivor Evelyn Lauder, the senior corporate vice president at the cosmetics company Estée Lauder created a ribbon for the cosmetics giant to distribute in stores in New York City.
A pink and blue ribbon is sometimes used to symbolize breast cancer in men, which is relatively rare. The pink and blue ribbon was designed in 1996 by Nancy Nick, President and Founder of the John W. Nick Foundation to bring awareness that "Men Get Breast Cancer Too!"




Meaning


The color pink is considered feminine in modern Western countries. It evokes traditional feminine gender roles, caring for other people, being beautiful, being good, and being cooperative.
The pink ribbon represents fear of breast cancer, hope for the future, and the charitable goodness of people and businesses who publicly support the breast cancer movement. It is intended to evoke solidarity with women who currently have breast cancer.
Breast cancer organizations use the pink ribbon to associate themselves with breast cancer, to promote breast cancer awareness, and to support fundraising. Some breast cancer-related organizations, such as Pink Ribbon International, use the pink ribbon as their primary symbol. Susan G. Komen for the Cure uses a stylized "running ribbon" as their logo.
While specifically representing breast cancer awareness, the pink ribbon is also a symbol and a proxy of goodwill towards women in general. Buying, wearing, displaying, or sponsoring pink ribbons signals that the person or business cares about women. The pink ribbon is a marketing brand for businesses that allows them to promote themselves with women and identify themselves as being socially aware. Compared to other women's issues, promoting breast cancer awareness is politically safe.




Products


Each October, hundreds, if not thousands, of products are emblazoned with pink ribbons, colored pink, or otherwise sold with a promise of a small portion of the total cost being donated to support breast cancer awareness or research.
The first breast cancer awareness stamp in the U.S., featuring a pink ribbon, was issued 1996. As it did not sell well, a new stamp with an emphasis on research was designed. The new stamp does not feature the pink ribbon.
In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mint produced a silver commemorative breast cancer coin. 15,000 coins were minted during 2006. On one side of the coin, a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is illustrated, while on the other side a pink ribbon has been enameled.
Additionally, 30 million 25-cent coins were minted with pink ribbons during 2006 for normal circulation. Designed by the mint's director of engraving, Cosme Saffioti, this colored coin is the second in history to be put into regular circulation.




Intellectual property status


In most jurisdictions, the pink ribbon is considered public domain. However, in Canada, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation claims ownership of the ribbon as an official mark, a special form of trademark reserved for governmental and charitable organizations.




Uses


In 2000, NABCO paid Namco to put the pink ribbon on Ms. Pac-Man.
On Sunday, October 10, 2010, all King Features Syndicate comic strips were printed in shades of red and pink, with the ribbon appearing prominently in one panel.




Criticism


Promotion of the pink ribbon as a symbol for breast cancer has not been credited with saving any lives. Wearing or displaying a pink ribbon has been denounced as a kind of slacktivism, because it has no practical positive effect. Furthermore, concerns have been raised that eventually the pink ribbon will fall out of popular use and become nothing more than a fad, similar to how the red AIDS awareness ribbon was once very popular and worn by many celebrities in the 1980s and 1990s but fell out of fashion by 1997.




Pinkwashing


Business marketing campaigns, particularly sales promotions for products that increase pollution, have been condemned as pinkwashing (a portmanteau of pink ribbon and whitewash). Such promotions generally result in a token donation to a breast cancer-related charity, while exploiting the consumers' fear of cancer and grief for people who have died to drive sales.




Pink Ribbons, Inc


Associate professor of kinesiology and health studies at Queen's University Samantha King describes in her 2006 book Pink Ribbons, Inc: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy how breast cancer has been transformed from a serious disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship and corporate sales pitch.
King writes that, in an unprecedented outpouring of cause-related marketing, large businesses have turned their formidable promotion machines on the promotion of breast cancer awareness, while also opposing public health efforts (such as stricter environmental legislation) and stifling investigation into why and how breast cancer affects approximately one woman in 10 in the developed world. King questions the legitimacy of privately funded efforts to stop the epidemic among American women and the consistent NBCAM emphasis on screening (such as free mammograms) instead of fundamental research into causes. She also questions the corporate focus on breast cancer, which kills one-tenth as many women as heart disease, the #1 killer of women. More women get skin cancer than breast cancer, and more women die from lung cancer than breast cancer, she notes, but these other diseases do not attract the same level of corporate—or consumer—attention.
King's book has inspired a National Film Board of Canada documentary film, Pink Ribbons, Inc., directed by Léa Pool, which is premiering at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.




Breast Cancer Action


San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Action has renamed the annual awareness campaign "Breast Cancer Industry Month" to emphasize the costs of treatment. Their "Think Before You Pink" campaign urges people to "do something besides shop." After explaining that some "pink" sponsors are polluting industrial giants or spend more money on breast cancer-themed advertisements than they actually donate towards research or treatment, BCA asks consumers to reflect thoughtfully on questions like, "How much money was spent marketing the product?" or "What is the company doing to assure that its products are not contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?" This group has particularly excoriated major cosmetic companies such as Avon, Revlon, and Estée Lauder, which have claimed to promote women's health while simultaneously using known and/or suspected cancer-causing chemicals, such as parabens and phthalates in their products.




Other meanings of the pink ribbon


A pink ribbon is used to tie up a brief for delivery to an English barrister. The pink ribbon in this context is usually described as 'pink tape' or 'legal tape'. Also see 'red tape'.


Internation naming

Arabic: شريط وردي
Urdu: گلابی ربن
Spanish: Cinta Rosada
Filipino: Lasong Rosas
French: Ruban Rose
Indonesian: Pita Pink
Italian: Nastro Rosa
Galician: Lazo Vermello
Valencian: Llaç rosa
Catalan: Cinta rosa
German: Rosa Schleife
Dutch: Roze Lint
Danish: Lyserøde Sløjfe
Croatian: Ružičasta vrpca
Czech: Růžová stužka
Finnish: Roosa nauha
Hungarian: Rózsaszín szalag
Macedonian: Розева панделка
Norwegian: Rosa Sløyfe
Korean: 핑크리본
Latvian: Rozā lente
Lithuanian: Rožinis kaspinas
Persian: روبان صورتی
Polish: Różowa Wstążka
Portuguese: Fita Rosa
Romanian: Panglica Roz
Russian: Pозовая Лента
Slovak: Ružová stužka
Swedish: Rosa Bandet
Catalan: Llaç Rosa
Turkish: Pembe Kurdele
Japanese: ピンクリボン
Chinese: 粉红丝带
Hebrew: סרט ורוד
Serbian: Ружичаста машна
Slovenian: Rožnati trak
Ukrainian: Рожева стрічка
Estonian: Roosa lint
Greek: Ρόζ κορδέλα



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