[CSR] Is Pink Ribbon Philanthropic or Commercial? 粉紅絲帶是為了慈善募捐還是營利商品?

Even though the pink ribbon campaign appears quite successful in branding the recognition of the pink ribbon as the symbol of breast advocacy, the design has become exploited and actually overused and misused by some companies as a marketing tool to boost profit. It is noticeable that many cosmetic companies, such as Estée Lauder, Avon, and Bobbi Brown, developed a series of products with the pink ribbon sign, in order to demonstrate their care towards women’s health and issues. These products are usually marketed as “not just to sell a product, but to sell a good will as well” (Stordahl, 2012). Because of the popularity of pink ribbons, people can easily label these products subconsciously as good, healthy products representing justice in the fight to women’s health. As a result from the strong belief and trust in the pink ribbon culture, through continuous building this pink ribbon brand in the consumers’ mind by the contribution of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, some cosmetic companies exploit the kindness of consumers to increase their sales, even without a penny of donation (Stordahl, 2012). The marketing techniques employed when incorporating a pink ribbon into advertising has, therefore, been exploited to such an extent which profit has overtaken the initial goal that consumers have responded by emphasising their dislike for such behaviour from these industries (McNichol, 2009). The breast cancer awareness campaigns have sort of lost its original focus. In addition, the dominance of pink ribbons in health issues has resulted in overshadowing all the rest of ribbon. Especially in the social marketing area, the fairness and distribution of social resources must be considered when implementing the strategy to increase public awareness.

乳癌防治運動以粉紅絲帶作為品牌，成功地將其品牌形象深入人心，但也有不少人認為這樣的方式，追根究柢是企業在追求獲利的手段罷了。雅斯蘭黛、雅芳等公司曾推出一系列粉紅絲帶商品，以倡導女性的健康議題，來獲得消費者的關注。這樣的活動價值並非只是販賣商品，而是販賣一種權力，一種女性也可以爭取健康的權利。由於消費者愛好粉紅絲帶所帶來的的信念和信任，全國乳癌防治月刊也指出有些不肖廠商，透過這樣的一個信任來販賣商品，但是卻一分錢都沒有捐贈到慈善機構。這樣的行為也引起民眾強烈的反感，乳癌防治運動也略為失控，失去了其最終的目標。因此在社會營銷的領域中，公平的分配社會資源必須是一個重要考量。