I’m sitting on my couch fuming. Yes, the couch in which I sank when I found the lump in my chest. The couch on which I cried when I was diagnosed with cancer. The couch on which I plopped after first coming out of my chemo coma every other weeks for eight weeks and the couch on which I napped in the afternoons after my radiation treatment.
I’m here fuming because a company wants to donate money to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure for each one of their pink colored products they sell. The problem? This product is a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and it’s part of their “Buckets for the Cure” campaign. For every bucket of their fat-laden (yes, each piece of that chicken is about 50% fat), they’ll donate 50 cents. Their goal is $8.5 million between April 5 and May 9 2010 (not a big window either). They want to make the largest single donation. To reach that goal, they’ll need to sell 17 million buckets of chicken! In roughly five weeks that’s over 3 million buckets of chicken a week, over 400,000 buckets a day!
To who? To women? Women who need to know that there is growing evidence linking obesity to breast cancer (approximately 17% of breast cancers can be linked to carrying extra weight according to the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Cancer) . Seriously? Buy fat-laden chicken, which if eaten often enough, can lead to obesity and breast cancer so we can stop breast cancer? Isn’t this a little like a tobacco company donating 50 cents of every pack sold to the American Lung Association? I know others think so: Last Word on KFC’s Breasts For Boobs
They’ll guarantee a $1 million donation – well how about that? You know if they didn’t start this campaign, pay for the advertising, print the pink buckets, etc. They’d probably be able to give even more without anyone buying their product.
And I have to say I’m a bit peeved that Komen is okay with this – but that’s another matter.
I propose this instead – how about we go viral on this. Tweet it – put it on your Facebook status – let’s get 8.6 million people to donate $1.00 each to the American Cancer society instead and show we can raise more than they can, without having to compromise our health.