Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy

This is a very good book. I think the editing needed to be tightened up, but that is my opinion. I will warn you this book will make your sick to your stomach.Why would it make you sick to your stomach? When you see how much money is raised to "increase awareness" and how little money actually goes to finding a cure, you will be shocked and angry. I lost my mom and my sister-in-law to this disease. It is an ugly disease. If you are not "aware" of breast cancer, then you must be living under a rock at the bottom of a deep well. Almost everybody knows somebody who has breat cancer.This book will most likely make you angry. It made me angry. All those pink products advertised in October making all that money for the companies that produce the stuff. Most of it does not go into prevention or cure, just paying the executives big salaries.If you are wondering why so much money is being spent on "research" on breast cancer, read this book. It won't make you happy but it will give you what you need to break away from the pink ribbon culture.

Liked how it illuminates the different aspects health movements and initiatives. How these initiatives are exploited and used by companies to make profits

I thought the book was pretty interesting, and worth the read, even if I did have to read it for a class.

A great study of the neoliberalization of activism and politics. If you are interested in how neoliberal discourses have come to change our orientation towards public life, this is a great book, whether or not you are interested in breast cancer politics.

"Think Before You Pink" - next time you are at the grocery store and the ask you if you want to donate to Breast Cancer "Awareness" tell them you are already "aware" - and then suggest this book - quite the eye opener.

Very informative. Pink Ribbons sheds light on the details and scams companies do to make money, and claim to donate to the cure.

King's premise is good: Where is all the money going when we consumers virtuously buy a box of crackers of a carton of yogurt decorated with a pink ribbon? Having experienced breast cancer, I am sick and tired of seeing pink ribbons everywhere I look, and have become cynical about the plethora of alleged research that's being funded right and left. Like King, I doubt that a cure is possible--there are too many factors contributing to the disease and too many different bodies experiencing it. The best we can hope for is to mitigate the causes and find more effective treatment.King rightly points out that hopping on the "cure breast cancer!" bandwagon is just another marketing tool for companies hoping to enhance their images in the public's eyes. For example, she exposes that one would need to eat three cartons of yogurt every day for four months in order for the little lids to amount to a trifling $36. Skip the calories and send your money to your nearest research facility: that's much more effective.But King gets caught up in a scholarly wordiness that is hard to plow through. She also spends too much verbiage criticizing the big, bad businesses that are hiding behind the pink ribbons. She feels government should "mitigate the effects of capitalism" by offering universal health care and offering more assistance to "underserved" populations. The book turns into a treatise on social policy and this angle dilutes her message. And I wonder if King realizes that the money for social programs must come from somewhere. She doesn't seem to understand that businesses pay a lot of taxes and employ people, who in turn pay taxes too, and that government has no income except those taxes!This book needed some serious editing and cutting to make it more accessible to the general reader. But then it would only have been an article.

it will change a lot of peoples minds on breast cancer and runs and plastics...just everything you are given a large amount of true information....exciyy

I give it 5 starts because I found it informative and would encourage everyone to read it. It is important to educate ourselves and this book is a good beginning.