Pink Ribbons, Inc

Some of the pink-ribbon sponsors may even be implicated in rising cancer rates. Avon is a major supporter of the cause, yet certain cosmetics contain suspected cancer-causing agents. While encouraging customers to send in Yoplait lids in exchange for donations to breast-cancer research, the yogurt’s manufacturer used milk that contained bovine growth hormone. (The substance, which is banned in many countries, was later eliminated.) The goal of such companies, allege their critics, is to “pinkwash” possibly carcinogenic products.

Such scientific arguments remain unresolved, and this unapologetically polemical documentary doesn’t offer equal time for corporate viewpoints. But the movie’s indignation seems justified on at least one point: that the pink-ribbon movement thus far has done more for marketing than for medicine.

This movie review was originally posted on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/31/153912165/pink-ribbons-tied-up-with-more-than-hope