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http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehuman … erism.aspx

I just redeemed a coupon from P&G for a Swiffer. For my effort, two cents will be given to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. I would have to buy 500 Swiffer wet thingies to make a $10 donation. But I needed a Swiffer anyway. And two cents is better than nothing. So why not use the coupons that were inserted into my newspaper?

Because, says Barbara Brenner, the executive director of Breast Cancer Action, a nonprofit  watchdog group headquartered in San Francisco, buying pink products has little to do with helping cure and treat breast cancer. Says Brenner: “Everyone has been guilt-tripped into buying pink things. If shopping could cure breast cancer it would be cured by now.”

Well, I wasn’t particularly “guilted,” just out of some basic necessities. And hey, two cents is two cents.

But Brenner says consumers need to strip off their pink-tinted glasses.

Knowing that it's largely marketing bull, I put "shopping pink" right below "conveniently located in the aisle", but I know a lot of people buy into this stuff.

Now, understanding how this works with something like breast cancer, imagine the marketing machine around environmental issues - think green.

Both are serious issues, but the marketing and politics have grown larger than the issues they claim to support. Which is why I steadfastly refuse to think <X>, where X is anything other than myself and my family.