2006 October | Pink for October

31 October 2006

Wrap Up

Filed under: The Event — Matthew Oliphant @ 10:50

Thank you.

Pink for October was rather successful and it is entirely thanks to you. I have a lot of ideas that being, “You know what’d be cool?” Thankfully this one came through, but I couldn’t have done it alone. Everyone who Went Pink and everyone who shared their stories made this event what it is.

I’d like to thank again Brian Gilham for providing the Men section, Tammie Lister for providing the design of this site, Nick Oder for making everything work, and many 9rules members for their support and ideas.

And while this started as a “cool” idea, I think it transcended cool. It mattered. I don’t say that in an ego-inflating way. I believe Pink for October made a difference. Big changes start small. Even if only one person was impacted by this it was a good thing. That one person might find a cure, or fund it, or now know how to convince their family member to do a self-exam every month. And I know we impacted more than one person.

I’ve been asked a number of times this week if I will be taking the site down. No. This site will be used next year and I don’t want to hide content that might help or influence someone over the coming months. There might not be many posts between now and next August, but you never know. I suggest pulling the feed (Bloglines, Google Reader, Feedburner) to stay up to date. Or stop by in the dark of winter (for you Northern Hemisphereians) to get a dose of Pink.

Speaking of Next Year

I’ve jokingly said to a few people that next year’s theme will be “automation.” But it isn’t a joke completely. Next year I will have a mechanism set up for you to enter info about you and your site so that list to the left stays current. I just couldn’t keep up with the requests when I was entering each site by hand, which is why the list stopped at 500.

I also want to provide some themes for people to download. That was a big request from most people who contacted me. Thankfully some designs were made available. But next year I’d like to get 5 to 10 designs for people to choose from.

More video. I had some ideas for short movies, but I have no video camera. Hopefully by next year I will be able to afford one. Actually, I could get one now but I want a good one. Which leads to the next Next Year thing…

Interviews. I’d like to do more interviews with people. Medical people, family members… And I’d like a way for you to participate in that too. It could be something where we allow uploading to this site, or we make use of sites like YouTube.

More posting. More from me, more from you. And please feel free to add your story even if it isn’t October.

Stats

~1500 sites Went Pink.
32 posts.
174 comments.
422 spam comments. None of them annoyed us thanks to Akismet.
700 extra spam emails in my account! :)
~54000 unique visits.
~100000 page views.

C’est Fin

And on that note, can I get a “woo hoo!” Until next time, my thanks to you for making this possible.

Comments (5)

24 October 2006

Gag Me With a Pink Ribbon

Filed under: My Story — jeanne @ 9:02

I hate pink, especially the pink ribbons. I really do. I don’t understand what they are for… support and solidarity, something like that, but I’m not getting that from a little twist of pink metal pretending to be a ribbon.

I think the pink ribbon marketing thing has totally turned me off to the idea of pink for October. I understand the idea of solidarity, but what I see is companies using pink to sell junk in the name of supporting women with breast cancer. Then I see the whole debate about pink merchandise in the press (and I’ve contributed to this) and it is taking attention away from important information about breast cancer and living with breast cancer that needs to get out there. Did you see the story Reuters sent out recently about how high suicide rates are among breast cancer survivors?

Instead of pink ribbons, I’d rather have national health insurance or any health insurance plan that insures SICK people. The way things are now, if you are young and healthy, you can get health insurance at a reasonable cost. If you are old or, God forbid, sick, forget it.

If you want to support people with cancer, forget the ribbon and lobby for national health care. Or for a state health insurance plan that is open to everyone, rich and poor, sick and well.

When someone without health insurance goes to a public hospital, and can’t pay for treatment, the hospital will write off the bill. One visit to the emergency room by an uninsured person can easily cost the same as one year of health insurance premiums, if not more.

Who makes up the difference when a public hospital writes off a bill? You and me, the taxpayers.

Making a web site pink for October is fairly benign compared to the pink-ribbon marketing that runs wild every October. Retailers offer pink-themed merchandise, then donate only a tiny share of the profits to cancer research.

I’m tripping over these products everywhere I go this month. At the pet store, a pink dog collar printed with pink ribbons sells for $9.99; the tag says 30 cents (30 cents!) from the sale of this product will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the 800-pound gorilla of cause marketing.

But wait, there’s more! At the tea shop, a pink tin of candy. At the supermarket, pink M&Ms. Other recent pink products: scarves, clothing, and nail polish.

Nail polish? All of this just encourages us to indulge in retail therapy while trivializing a very serious disease. This is not about raising money for cancer research; this is about companies selling you stuff you don’t need, just to make a profit. Don’t fall for it.

To read more, go to my blog:

—Jeanne Sather

Comments (33)

20 October 2006

Bree Williamson PSA on Knowing Your Breasts

Filed under: Breast Cancer,Women — Matthew Oliphant @ 20:53

Found this on Google Video tonight; it was in the Top 100. One of the things I like about it is that it is 100% about creating awareness, talking about breast cancer, and knowing your body.

There’s a lot happening this month related to Breast Cancer Awareness. Almost all of it is good, but a lot of that good focuses on what you can buy not what you can learn. Obviously, I like the latter more. And that’s why I am not asking for money. Looking ahead to next year I might, but it will only go to activities that support/offer awareness and learning opportunities.

That means I have a lot of research to do between now and then. It’s easy to find a company to make pink things to sell and earmark money for research, but I am finding it difficult to locate companies or orgainzations that focus solely, or even mostly, on education.

As has been said before, breast cancer is common but it is also relatively easy to detect. Knowing what you are looking for will go a long way to better health.

Comments (1)

11 October 2006

How People Contribute to This Event Beyond Going Pink

Filed under: The Event — Matthew Oliphant @ 8:26

Beyond Going Pink for the month of October, some people are doing other things. It is wonderful to see the different ways people are contributing and frankly it’s exactly what I hoped for. I want people to get involved in the way it makes sense for them.

I’ve received a number of emails from people over the last month asking me to tell them what to do. While I have given some links for them to follow up on, my main point of advice has been “do something in the context of your everyday life.” That will have more impact on you and the people around you than anything else.

WordPress Themes Released

From Scott La Plant at imediatech.biz

imediatech.biz

This template is entirely free to download and use, Scott just asks requests that you make a 5 dollar donation if you can. Scott’s step-daughter is doing a 30 mile walk for breast cancer over 3 days and the donations go to her team.

From Derek Punsalan at 5thirtyone.com

5thirtyone.com

Derek’s theme is also free, but he does request that “any credits concerning the originating source be retained and that any distributions of the theme be limited to 5thirtyone.com. I also request that for the month of October, the header introduction concerning Breast Cancer Awareness month and the Pink for October initiative remain intact through the end of the month.”

Money

In visiting most of the sites that Went Pink, I noticed (but sadly failed to write down the URLs) quite a few freelancers and companies who were pledging a portion of or sometimes their entire income for the month of October to go to Breast Cancer awareness, education, and research inititives.

Fun With Pictures

John Watson, who owns fd’s Flickr Toys at bighugelabs.com, just released a “toy” that allows you to create a Breast Cancer Awareness poster using an image from your Flickr account.

bighugelabs.com/flickr/nbcam.php

My daughter. One of the reasons I want Breast Cancer to be curable sooner than later.

If you are doing something more than Going Pink, email me or leave a commment about it.

Comments (9)

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