There’s a lot of talk about breast cancer awareness – the need for awareness, the desire to raise awareness, the use of pink ribbons or bracelets or t-shirts to symbolize awareness. The awareness mantra works for generating interest in the cause of breast cancer, creating fanfare, selling products, and maintaining the message that breast cancer is important. Is that really awareness?
The Breast Cancer Consortium is developing the Beyond Awareness Campaign to address common trends and identify what is typically missing from mainstream activities such as:
- the realities of the disease
- the diverse experiences of the diagnosed
- the need for evidence-based information and balance in health news
- how to tell myths from facts
- how to read the fine print of pink-ribboned products and consider the practices of sponsoring/partnering corporations
- how to know whether a company, organization, or individual has the expertise to tell us anything useful about health or illness
- how conflicts of interest may be influencing the marketing and programming decisions of those who administer breast cancer programs
- how to evaluate charitable organizations and know who to trust when making decisions about charitable giving
- how to find out how much money is raised in the name of breast cancer and how it is spent
- how to evaluate what is needed to eradicate the breast cancer epidemic
- how to think about the big picture when it comes to breast cancer (What’s at stake, and for whom? What would it take to stop cancer before it starts? What kinds of “actions” would really make a difference in stopping the epidemic?)
To make progress in breast cancer, we need to go BEYOND AWARENESS. Visit the Breast Cancer Consortium’s Beyond Awareness Workbook.
The Breast Cancer Consortium's