Since 1985, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an international health campaign, has been held every October. It aimed to promote screening, support people diagnosed with breast cancer, raise money for research, and educate everyone about risk factors. But how did it start? And how did it grow to an international focus?
According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, 2.3 million women globally were diagnosed with breast cancer, and 670,000 died because of it. Despite affecting women throughout history, breast cancer was considered an unspeakable and incurable disease in America until the 20th century. In 1912, the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC), which was later renamed American Cancer Society (ACS), was cofounded by physicians and laypeople to change this mindset and promote cancer detection awareness. Mary Lasker, whose housekeeper was diagnosed with uterine cancer, shifted the singular focus on detection awareness. Lasker began fundraising because she was infuriated that the organization did no research. When she attempted to broadcast it on the radio, she was told that “cancer” couldn’t be mentioned on air. After appealing to her husband, a successful advertising executive, to orchestrate radio appeals to fund cancer research, it created a mountain of donations for ACS. As a result, ACS expends 25% of its budget on cancer research.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month started as a week-long awareness campaign by the American Cancer Society and Imperial Chemical Industries in 1985. The intent was to improve the survival rates by informing the public about the importance of receiving routine mammograms for early breast cancer detection and treatment. It gained further traction when Betty Ford, former First Lady of the United States and breast cancer survivor, and other leaders brought attention to it.
The pink ribbon, an iconic symbol of breast cancer awareness, began peach-colored ribbon, created by Charlotte Haley in 1991. Haley hand-made and locally distributed her ribbons to advocate to the National Cancer Institute to allocate more than 5% of their budget for cancer prevention. Her ribbons gained so much traction that SELF magazine and Estée Lauder requested to brand her ribbons to bring awareness. However, Haley declined because she thought that the companies were too corporate. Instead, the companies created the iconic brighter pink ribbons.
In 1992, Alexandra Penney, SELF magazine’s editor-in-chief, partnered with Evelyn Lauder, Estée Lauder’s senior corporate vice president, to distribute pink ribbons after the magazine’s 2nd annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month issue. Lauder was a breast cancer survivor who launched the first nationwide Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. The Estée Lauder Companies solidified the pink ribbon’s representation by handing out 1.2 million ribbons, along with self-exam instruction cards at Estée Lauder counters.
One source of criticism is over-commercialism of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Many expressed their concerns over “pinkwashing” or when companies use pink ribbons to sell products that could increase the risk of breast cancer. One example is when Revlon partnered with the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) for a campaign that included pink ribbons on cosmetics. However, the products contained long-chain parabens and DMDM hydantoin, chemicals that increased the risk of some cancers. The company had removed them from their products. To combat this issue, the nonprofit Breast Cancer Action started a Think Before You Pink campaign, calling for transparency and accountability for companies.
To this day, Breast Cancer Awareness Month continues to bring awareness. Consider donating directly to organizations that support breast cancer research, schedule your annual mammogram, and learn more about breast cancer.
