FILM FRIDAY
Monsieur Lahzar, Pink Ribbons, Inc. reviewed
Pink stinks. That’s the premise behind Pink Ribbons, Inc., a documentary that traces the origins of the ubiquitous pink ribbon in fundraising efforts for breast cancer research, and the insidious “cause marketing” techniques used to sway women into spending money on products under the banner of cancer research funding.
Across North America people (mostly women) run, walk, dive, swim, paddle, skydive and, most importantly, shop for the cause. The ribbon is a symbol of the entire movement, which has spawned a plethora pink products. Everything from vacuum cleaners to alcohol are hawked under the name of breast cancer research.
It’s understandable why so many buy into this diluted form of activism. Canadian cancer statistics are sobering. In Canada, one in nine women is expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. On average 64 Canadian women are diagnosed each day. But, as author and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich sagely points out, there is a need to question whether jumping from airplanes and swiping a credit card is subverting our ability to create change through grassroots movement. “We used to march in the streets. Now we run for a cure,” she says.
Through interviews with cancer patients, corporate talking heads and social critics, this documentary carefully peels back the layers, crunches the numbers and reveals some nauseating truths about how easily women are manipulated into thinking the only power they have is in their pocketbooks. The pink ribbon didn’t start that way. The documentary traces the ribbon’s origins from a symbol of strength to its current focus-group tested inception.
When Charlotte Haley began the original pink ribbon movement, it was a project designed to raise awareness about the dire lack of funding for research into breast cancer prevention. The resulting media attention caught the eye of Estee Lauder. When Haley refused to hand over her salmon-coloured ribbon to the corporate entity, the companies decided to forge on without her and create the perfect, soothing shade of pink.
Women are bombarded with messaging and pressured to be “positive,” to be a “survivor,” a “fighter” and a “warrior” in their breast cancer “battle.” It’s not a metaphor everyone ascribes to, and some female cancer patients reject the ideas spoon fed to them by the mass media.
Director Lea Pool has assembled a thoughtful collection of subjects, including author Samantha King, who provided the inspiration for the film with her book Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy.
It’s empowering to see so many smart, articulate women appearing on camera with no airbrushing and no opinions held back. In today’s media it’s rare to see intelligent women espousing opinions that are at times discomforting.
That said, those women most swayed by the heavy handed marketing tactics of this pinkwashing phenomenon are accustomed to the pull of hyper-sexualized, hyper-glamorized ideals of womanhood and might reject this up front, less than glamorous truth. Contrast this with Susan G. Komen foundation founder Nancy G. Brinker, who appears on camera shellacked and poised in a pink suit jacket to defend her organization, one of the world’s largest fundraising machines oper- ating under the breast cancer banner.
It’s a powerful film (named one of the top 10 films at the Toronto International Film Festival) with many unsettling truths. Let’s hope it reaches the right ears and eyes before more people get pulled under by the tsunami of pink product placement. Will this film reach those who need to hear its message? Or will those who participate in the runs, walks and jumps feel deflated, duped, disappointed and powerless? Without the power of purchasing, how can we find a cure? Or perhaps more importantly, the cause?