Calendar Girl Blog: Cause Marketing

It is true that Breast Cancer is the darling of corporate North America. The catch phrase to describe this behaviour is 'Cause Marketing'.

A few weeks ago, an male acquaintance told me he was going to shave his head for 'the cause.' I asked him why? He was puzzled by my question so I expanded it a tad and asked him if he had a personal connection to breast cancer. When this got a negative response, I went on to ask what part of 'the cause' he was going to contribute to. His brow furrowed. I was clearly complicating the issue for him.

Today, I watched and listened to a room of people react to the suggestion that at the very least, we should THINK before we PINK. Here's an example of why this is wise.

There's a pink ribbon campaign happening right now with a soya milk company. The company will not disclose how much money they raise, nor will they say where it is going. The product is not organic. This is an important point as soya beans are one of the most heavily pesticide sprayed crops grown. And there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that there is a link between pesticides and breast cancer. As consumers, we see the pink ribbon logo on the product and that alone may be enough for us to chose that brand over another brand. That is 'cause marketing' in action.

You can be sure that the company's bottom line is greatly improved by their campaign. Yet the product is contributing to the problem.

There seemed to be a 'fear of thinking' or maybe it was a 'fear of encouraging thinking' that whipped through the room. People kept asking the presenter to list the 'bad' companies. She didn't bite and instead encouraged each of us to ask questions and get answers before we made a purchase.

Her suggestion went over like a lead balloon.

It wasn't until much later that I got a new glimmer of understanding of why the idea of asking questions was so poorly received. Canadians, who are the bulk of this conferences delegates, are by nature polite. Our 'niceness' is part of our cultural identity. Asking questions is .... well...can be seen as.... kind of rude.

Say no more.

Calendar Girl is moving up the coast tomorrow afternoon. No more sailors. No more Halifax. And the final, half day of the conference is but a few hours away. For now, Calendar Girl would like to report that it is now dark out and slightly cooler.

Calendar Girl