Pink ribbon masks discord in the fight against breast cancer

The San Francisco-based Breast Cancer (news – web sites) Action (BCA) group is counter-attacking this onslaught of commercialism with its campaign “Think Before you Pink.”

The group decries the lack of coordination and transparency among federal agencies, private foundations and pharmaceutical companies funding research on breast cancer.

“No one knows exactly how much money is being raised and spent every year, or where all the money is going,” said group executive director Barbara Brenner, herself a breast cancer victim. —Pink ribbon masks discord in the fight against breast cancer

I blogged about the breast cancer controversy back in April, when I found Mary Ann Swissler’s “The Marketing of Breast Cancer.” The local media coverage of breast cancer fund-raisers is typically “soft” — that is, the focus is on personal survival stories, rather than on the accountability and efficiency of the organizers.