Comments on: New Research Suggests The Color Pink is Bad for Breast Cancer

By: fafa

fafa — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:59:00 +0000

I think pink is a color which is adored by many young girls and teens. The word cancer awareness is not as positive as Cancer free or cancer cure, so when you associate a color to a reminder of something sad and suffering such as cancer, the color pink becomes associated with the intense feelings that come to our subconcious when we think about the cancer and what it may have done to us and our family. If the campaign continues to associate themselves with the color pink and everyone else makes pink products to incrfease the promotion of teh words” CANCER awareness” then it will be instilled heavily into our subconcious minds. Girls may start looking at the color pink and everytime they do, they see the word cancer next too it, creating a sad and hopeless feeling. So, I think subliminally its not the best choice in promoting something in a positive way. I wonder if this association with pink has caused any increase in cancer amongst young girls and women who love pink. Our subconcious minds are very intelligent and they pick up on everything and sometimes we can pick up unrelated associations such as this instance (color and disease) and it will become a reality.

By: BMC

BMC — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 19:18:54 +0000

I agree with the comments that certain colors don’t need to include or exclude particular demographics when the disease affects everyone. Ultimately, the definition of these colors and their associations are provided to us by the organizations that create them. If something is getting lost in the translation and it’s having a negative effect, then perhaps it is time to change tactics?

By: #Ron

#Ron — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:48:23 +0000

I actually never knew why pink was the colour for breast cancer awareness. It wasn’t until I read this article that I heard about a connection between Komen and the colour pink.

Oddly enough, however, even after about a half hour of perusing the page, I found nothing on their website about this connection. There seems to be only one picture of Susan, and she isn’t wearing pink in it.

I applaud the foundation for their invaluable work and service, and they have had great success certainly worth celebrating. They’ve certainly built a strong emotional connection between their cause and their colour, which is extremely important and even more difficult.

I can understand reluctance to change the colour on account of their long-standing reputation. Nonetheless, I think they are facing a number of opportunities: don’t outright change your representative colour, but test new colour campaigns to reach a broader demographic; or give your supporters a reminder about why breast cancer awareness is pink.

@HashTagRon

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:22:37 +0000

Hi Nikko and Andrea–Thanks for your comments!

Andrea–You mean one size doesn’t fit all? I completely agree and am honored to have a real expert on the topic join in the discussion! I also appreciate you advocating for us to get beyond colors and labels–like those two things alone will solve everything, right? But that gets into a bigger discussion…

Related however, is that in the HBR article, Dr. Puntoni does offer the suggestion (and cites some research findings to support) that perhaps organizations would be MORE effective if they did choose more neutral-based colors and did present the stories and information under a more universal framework.

By: Andrea Learned

Andrea Learned — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:08:57 +0000

As someone who has studied the use of “for women” cues, like pink, in marketing to women (I’m the co-author of the book, Don’t Think Pink) – I agree that it is worth further study. While pink may have now been well-established as a brand color for the Susan G. Komen Foundation… it doesn’t need to be the code for every other cause about which you want women to potentially take note. And, taking a step back, why are certain causes either “for women” or not? Breast cancer, as a recent campaign puts it – affects everyone. The hope is that we get beyond using color or labels like “for women” or “women’s this or that” for causes that are really universally human issues/concerns. If we use the right stories, we shouldn’t need a symbolic color to engage the audience anyway… Very interesting research – I look forward to more.

By: Nikko

Nikko — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:46:16 +0000

If its bad for breast cancer, then its good for the women. There are a lot of organizations helping breast cancer victims, mostly I see of is the yellow color banners and logos. I think they should try using the pink and try if it can do something. Great post here.