Pink ribbon
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The pink ribbon is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness.
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[edit] History of the pink ribbon
The first ribbon that was represented as a meaningful object in history was the yellow ribbon that was mentioned in a marching song, which was sung by the military in the United States. In the year 1917 George A. Norton copyrighted the song for the first time. The title of the song was "Round Her Neck She Wears a Yeller Ribbon". In the 1940s the song was rewritten by several musicians.
Based on this song a wife of a hostage in Iran called Penney Laingen was the first who used the ribbon as an awareness symbol. She tied yellow ribbons around the trees, to illustrate the desire of her husband coming home. Her friends and family members followed the trend due to loyalty. As all Americans were able to see this message, the “ribbon became a medium”.
In the 1990s, AIDS activists were inspired by the ribbon medium, and decided to make ribbons for the people that fight against AIDS. The ribbon that represents AIDS became red as this is the color of passion. During the Tony awards, a photo was taken of the actor Jeremy Irons, who had the bright red ribbon pinned on his chest. As the public followed the awards, the ribbon was an eye catch and became popular overnight. The year 1992 was declared by The New York Times as “The year of the Ribbon”.
The first Pink Ribbon was introduced by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. They handed out pink visors to survivors of breast cancer who were running in its Race for the Cure since late 1990. Couple of months later; in the year 1991 every participant of the New York City race received a pink ribbon. However, the ribbon was not that important to them, as it was a minor detail in an important event.
Alexandra Penney, who was in the year 1992 the editor in chief of Self, a woman health magazine, was working on the second annual National Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue. Evelyn Lauder, who was the senior corporate vice president at Estee Lauder, was invited to be the guest editor of the NBCAM issue edition in 1992. Penney and Lauder came up with the idea to create a ribbon and to enlist the cosmetics giant to distribute it in stores in New York City. Evelyn Lauder then promised to spread the ribbons in the entire country, but a color for the ribbon was not decided on at the moment.
However, a 68-year old lady named Charlotte Hayley who battled breast cancer produced peach color ribbons. She sold them with a card saying, “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is 1.8 billion US Dollars, and only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon”. Her message spread fast. This made Penny and Evelyn Lauder interested in Hayley’s concept. They saw the initiative to adapt to Hayley’s idea by working with her. But Hayley rejected the offer saying that they were too commercial.
After discussing opportunities with Lauder, Hayley and the lawyers, they came up with a "new" color. The new color of the ribbon was pink and became an international symbol for breast cancer awareness.[citation needed]
[edit] Pink Ribbon International
The aim of this organization is to create a supportive community worldwide and to inform patients, specialist, families and friends about Pink Ribbon and Breast Cancer. Pink Ribbon International
| Spanish: | Lazo Rosado |
| French: | Ruban Rose |
| Italian: | Nastro Rosa |
| German: | Rosa Schleife |
| Dutch: | Roze Lint |
| Danish: | Lyserøde Sløjfe |
| Czech republic: | Růžová Stužka |
| Finland: | Roosa Nauha |
| Norway: | Rosa Sløyfe |
| Poland: | Różowa Wstążka |
| Russia: | розовая лента |
| Sweden: | Rosa Bandet |
| Turkey: | Pembe Kurdele |
| Japan: | ピンクリボン |
| Chinese: | 粉红丝带 |
[edit] Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities to increase awareness of the disease, raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure. The campaign also offers information and support to those affected by Breast Cancer.
AstraZeneca founded the Breast Cancer Awareness month in the year 1985. The aim of the NBCAM from the start has been to promote mammography as the most effective weapon in the fight against breast cancer.
The number of companies that engaged to Breast Cancer awareness increased over the years. Estee Lauder, Avon, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and other commercial and non-commercial organizations are engaging in several events and activities during October.
[edit] Activities and events during the BCAM
[edit] The National Race for the Cure
In October 1983 the Race for the Cure was held for the first time in Dallas, Texas, where 800 people participated. In the year 1999 not only did the number of participants increase to 600,000, but the Race become the nation’s largest 5K series, as 99 cities in the United States organized the Race for the Cure. In the year 2005 the number of participants reached 1.4 million illustrating that the race is a big success. The National Race for the Cure Website states that the National Race for the Cure which is held annually in Washington D.C., is the world biggest 5K in the world. However, this event does not only attract volunteers, but it also attracts companies that are willing to sponsor, celebrities, and politicians, which make the event bigger every year.
The Race for the Cure is also being organized in several other parts of the World.
| Australia and New Zealand | Dove Pink Star walk |
| Germany | Komen Frankfurt Race for the Cure |
| Netherlands | Walk for Women |
| Italy | Komen Italia Race for the Cure |
| United Kingdom | Race for my wife and Race for life |
| Canada | Run for the Cure |
| Hungary | Avon One-Day Walk for Life |
| Puerto Rico | Komen Puerto Rico Race for the Cure |
| Bulgaria | Breast Cancer Walk |
[edit] Breast Cancer 2 Day
A 60 mile fundraising walk spread over two days to raise money for breast cancer research institutes.
| Canada | Breast Cancer Walk (The Weekend to end Breast Cancer) |
[edit] Breast Cancer 3 Day
This sixty mile fundraising walk, which is spread across 3 days, raises money for the breast cancer reasearches that are being executed. This walk, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure occurs in several cities in the United States. The Breast Cancer 3-Day was previously sponsored and managed by Avon
| Bulgaria | Breast Cancer Walk |
| Czech Republic | Breast Cancer Conference |
| France | 5km Breast Cancer Race/Walk |
| Germany | Women's 5k/10k Walk Run |
| Greece | Recognition dinner and Avon Breast Cancer Crusade Fashion show |
| Hungary | Walk for Life |
| Ireland | Breast Cancer Walk |
| Italy | Breast cancer Awareness event |
| Poland | Breast Cancer Walk |
| Portugal | Educational walk-a-thon |
| Romania | Breast Cancer Walk |
| Russia | Press conference |
| Slovakia | Press conference |
| Spain | Breast Cancer Walk |
| Turkey | "Trip to Health with Avon" walk |
| Ukraine | Breast Cancer awareness walk |
| United Kingdom | "Celebrating Life" award ceremony |
[edit] Global Illumination
Estee Lauder Companies arrange that several world-famous landmarks are illuminated in pink light to draw attention (like the pink-ribbon) to the importance or early diagnose of breast cancer and the research for finding ways to cure and prevent breast cancer. Some of these landmarks are:
| The Harbour Bridge | Sydney | Australia |
| The Hangzhou Department Store | Hangzhou | China |
| Niagara Falls | Ontario | Canada |
| The Eden Project | Cornwall | England |
| The Majestic Hotel | Cannes | France |
| The French Affiliate Building | Paris | France |
| The Angel of Peace | Munich | Germany |
| City Hall | Reykjavik | Iceland |
| Moshe Aviv Tower | Ramat-gan | Israel |
| Constantine’s Arch | Rome | Italy |
| The Arena | Verona | Italy |
| Tokyo Tower | Tokyo | Japan |
| City Hall Square | Seoul | Korea |
| The Dam Square | Amsterdam | The Netherlands |
| The Skytower | Auckland | New Zealand |
[edit] In the Pink
This is an activity, which occurs during the Breast Cancer Awareness Month October and its aim is to raise money by organizing several activities such as theme parties or a pink day at work. The money that has been raised will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
[edit] Products
[edit] Breast Cancer Stamp
The first Breast Cancer Research Stamp was published in the year 1996. As it did not sell well Ethel Kessler was asked to design a new Breast Cancer research stamp. On the 29th of July in 1998, the breast cancer research stamp became public by the First Lady Hillary Clinton and Postmaster General William Henderson. The stamp costs 45 cents. 70 percent of fund raised are donated to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and 30 percent to the Breast Cancer Research Program of the Department of Defense (DOD). In November 2005 $ 33.5 million had been donated to the NCI and the DOD had collected $ 13 million.
History of the Breast Cancer Stamp
The breast cancer research stamp was the brainchild of Ernie Bodai, MD.
Dr. Bodai is a Kaiser Permanente surgeon who performs lumpectomies and mastectomies on women with breast cancer. Against all odds, he spent his own money and time lobbying for Congress' approval of the breast cancer stamp. He later began a nonprofit organization, Cure Breast Cancer Inc., raising money to bring attention to the stamp and the breast cancer cause.
Dr. Bodai's feat is astonishing when one considers the obstacles. To start, there was resistance, some of it fierce, to an unprecedented fundraising stamp. Objections came from the Postal Service itself, from stamp collectors, and yes, even from national breast cancer organizations.
Not surprisingly, the Postal Service was fearful of the precedent a fundraising stamp would set; as it is, the agency gets 40,000 ideas a year for commemorative stamps alone. Postal authorities feared that acquiescing to one request for a fundraising stamp would unleash an avalanche of similar requests from other crusaders for equally worthy causes.
More surprising was the opposition by the American Philatelic Society, whose leader argued that the added cost was tantamount to an unfair tax on stamp collectors. And although some may think of stamp collecting as an esoteric pastime pursued by apolitical hobbyists, stamp collectors have considerable lobbying clout, contributing $100 million in annual profits to the Postal Service. Then too, charity or semipostal stamps issued in other countries have been far from successful. For example, a Canadian stamp designed to raise money for the 1976 Olympics was a dismal failure, as was a more recent stamp to raise money to fight illiteracy.
Finally, Dr. Bodai had to face the sobering reality that should he pursue legislative action, the chances of getting a bill--any bill--through Congress would never be more than a remote possibility. This year, for example, 10,000 bills were introduced in Congress, but only 40, including the bill to mandate a breast cancer stamp, were passed.
Rejection of his proposal by US Postmaster General Marvin Runyon only strengthened Dr. Bodai's resolve. That resolve turned positively steely after he wrote to 48 congresswomen and eight women senators without receiving a single response. Recalls Dr. Bodai, his voice still tinged with disbelief, "I got zero response! That's when I got mad. That's when I bought my first plane ticket to Washington." With a crusader's zeal, he determined to lobby Congress to pass legislation mandating that the Postal Service issue the special stamp. Thus began an odyssey that would take him campaigning to Washington 14 more times in the next two years, deplete his personal savings by $100,000, and transform him into an instant lobbyist. At the same time, he knew the importance of gathering grassroots support for his cause. He vowed never to decline an invitation to speak, and speak he did: to more than 200 groups, including audiences as small as two persons and as large as 1,500.
Despite the odds against him--passage of a revenue-raising bill usually requires $10 million and four to five years--and hoping that a congressional bill would force the Postal Service into action, Dr. Bodai began to prowl the halls of Capitol Hill together with Elizabeth Mullen (a 39-year-old survivor of breast cancer as well as founder and CEO of the Covina, California-based Women's Information Network Against Breast Cancer) to enlist support for the idea of a fundraising stamp. The work was slow and often tedious. "I had a lot of doors slammed in my face, but I never gave up. On the contrary, the cause took over my life," Dr. Bodai says.
Bipartisan support for the stamp grew, and eventually Dr. Bodai and Ms. Mullen obtained commitments from Representative Vic Fazio (D-California) and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) to shepherd a bill through Congress. Finally, on July 22, 1997, at 10:30 pm, Dr. Bodai perched in the bleachers of the House of Representatives to watch as the bill flew through the House on a vote of 422-3. On a unanimous vote, Senator Feinstein arranged speedy passage of an identical bill through the Senate. Three weeks later, on August 13, 1997, President Clinton signed the Breast Cancer Research Stamp Act into law.
The breast cancer stamp became the nation's first "semi-postal" stamp designed to raise money for a cause. A U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report published in September determined that the stamp has been an effective fund-raiser. "Things that normally would not have been studied are being studied with these dollars," says Gerald P. Barnes, assistant director of fiscal infrastructure for the GAO.
According to the GAO report, as of April 2003, the most recent data available, the National Cancer Institute had funded 86 breast cancer research awards from the breast cancer stamp revenue. The Department of Defense had funded 19 projects.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who championed the breast cancer stamp in Congress, calls the Senate's reauthorization of the stamp "good news in the fight against breast cancer."
[edit] Breast Cancer Coin
In Canada a silver Breast Cancer coin has been put on the market. This coin exists 15,000 times worldwide. 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 displayed.
[edit] Critical Movements
[edit] Pink Ribbons, Inc
Samantha King describes (in her recently published book, 2006) how breast cancer has been transformed from a serious disease and individual tragedy to a market-driven industry of survivorship. In an unprecedented outpouring of philanthropy, corporations turn their formidable promotion machines on the curing of the disease while dwarfing public health prevention efforts and stifling the calls for investigation into why and how breast cancer affects such a vast number of people. Here, for the first time, King questions the effectiveness and legitimacy of privately funded efforts to stop the epidemic among American women.
[edit] Other meanings of the pink ribbon
A pink ribbon is also used to tie up a bundle of documents and papers along with the brief for delivery to an English barrister.
| Awareness ribbon • List of ribbons | ||
|---|---|---|
Blue ribbon  |
Red ribbon  |
White ribbon  |
Yellow ribbon  |
Green ribbon  |
Orange ribbon  |
Purple ribbon  |
Brown ribbon  |
Pink ribbon  |
