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[edit] Controversy and criticism
[edit] Grants to Planned Parenthood
The Susan G. Komen organization allows its affiliates to award grants to Planned Parenthood and other clinics. This partnership has garnered criticism from anti-abortion advocates because Planned Parenthood provides abortion.[42] More recent studies reported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes for Heath show that there are no links between breast cancer and abortion.[43] (Irrelevant) Komen says its affiliates provide funds for screening, education and treatment programs in dozens of communities in which Planned Parenthood is the only place that poor, uninsured or under-insured women can receive these services.[44][45]
[edit] Pinkwashing in cause marketing
Komen has also been caught up in the controversy over "pinkwashing"—the use of breast cancer and the pink ribbon by corporate marketers, especially to promote products that might be unhealthful—in return for a donation to the cause. Komen benefits greatly from these corporate partnerships, receiving over $55 million a year from them.[46] However, critics say many of these promotions are deceptive to consumers and benefit the companies more than the charity.[47]
Organizations such as Breast Cancer Action, an advocacy group, say that such promotions are often financially ineffective.[48] For instance, in 2005 Yoplait donated ten cents to Komen for each lid mailed in by consumers at a time when postage to mail a letter cost 37 cents.[48] Since the Save Lids to Save Lives campaign began in 1998, Yoplait has donated more than $25 million to Komen. In 2010 their annual maximum commitment was raised to $1.6 million.[49]
In April 2010, Komen received national attention when it paired with fast food restaurant chain KFC to offer "Buckets for the Cure," a promotion in which fried and grilled chicken was sold in pink branded buckets. The collaboration garnered criticism from media outlets including The Colbert Report[50] and Bitch magazine,[49] and it raised concerns about the promotion of unhealthful eating habits and obesity.[51] KFC contributed over $4.2 million to Komen, the largest single contribution in the organization's history.[52] The partnership with KFC, which has since ended, allowed Komen "to reach many millions of women that they had been unable to reach before," said Brinker. Brinker did not quantify this opinion with hard numbers. [46]
[edit] Legal battles over trademarking
In 2007, the organization changed its name to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and trademarked the running ribbon as part of its new branding strategy.[53] Komen has come under fire for legal action against other nonprofits or organizations using the phrase "for the cure" within their names. An August 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal detailed a case in which the organization Uniting Against Lung Cancer was told in a letter from Komen that they should no longer use the name "Kites for the Cure" for their annual fundraising event. Komen also wrote to the organization to warn them "against any use of pink in conjunction with 'cure.'"[54] More than 100 small charities have received legal opposition from Komen regarding various uses of the words "for the cure" in their names, at a cost of nearly $1 million per year in donor funds.[55] Among the offending charitable organizations and events were "Par for the Cure," "Surfing for a Cure," "Cupcakes for a Cure" and "Mush for the Cure".[55] Komen says that the organization protects its trademarks as a matter of financial stewardship and that they want to prevent confusion among donors. According to Komen general counsel Jonathan Blum, a mixup could result in a donation being inadvertently sent to another charity.[56] Others suggest that the trademark issue is more about dominating the pink ribbon marketplace.[57]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_G._Komen_for_the_Cure
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