Marketing and all things related

My fellow Know More Media blogger, Jennifer Chait, published a great post on Office Stuffer today about October being Breast Cancer Awareness month.  A big part of breast cancer awareness and fundraising comes from company and brand promotions.  For example, think of all the products you see in stores or in ads sporting the pink ribbon representing breast cancer awareness or re-packaged in pink materials to help drive awareness to the cause.

Interestingly, Breast Cancer Action, an organization that works to help the breast cancer cause, has a new campaign called Think Before You Pink.  The purpose of the campaign is to draw attention to the many companies and brands who overtly display the pink ribbon or pink color of breast cancer awareness and support, but who actually donate very little of the profits made on the sale of those products to the cause.  Sadly, companies take advantage of the positive promotion related to supporting breast cancer awareness and the fight against the disease, but they don't do much more than reap the benefits themselves.

The Breast Cancer Action website includes a list of companies jumping on the pink ribbon bandwagon in 2007 called the Parade of Pink.  Before the companies and products are listed, the site states the following:

"October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. BCA refers to it as Breast Cancer Industry Month because it is the time of year when thousands of companies put a pink ribbon on their products and try to boost their image and their profits by connecting themselves to a good cause. What the pink ribbon stands for is clear. What is not always so clear is where the money from these pink ribbon products is going."

Breast Cancer Action then asks consumers to think about each product they buy with the intention of supporting the fight against breast cancer as not all marketing promotions related to the cause are equal.  You can see the full list of "pink" products available in 2007 as well as the donation amounts and any restrictions here.

I have to admit that I'm not surprised by this.  Let's face it, corporations focus on their bottomlines and fit cause marketing efforts in simply to boost their public image.  It would be wonderful to see a company truly believe in a cause and support it fully and for the right reasons, but as long as companies have to answer to shareholders, profits will remain the top priority.

What do you think?  Do companies take advantage of cause marketing in order to boost their own reputations in the eyes of consumers?