Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Sunday, May 2, 2010

What the Cluck?!

Before your next trip to KFC, read this.  Under the guise of helping cure breast cancer, KFC has partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to donate the whopping rate of 50 cents per each $20 pink bucket of chicken bought.  Don't get me wrong, though, it's not the donation I object to...  this campaign is problematic on many levels, not the least of which is the idea of buying unhealthy food and promoting a cancer cure in the same breath.  It's an empty corporate gesture designed primarily to make KFC look better. 

To understand it best, I quote from a letter written by Breast Cancer Action for people to use as a starting point for notifying KFC and Komen for the Cure about how they feel about this partnership:

"I am appalled by your "Buckets for the Cure" partnership. I share Breast Cancer Action's shock at this outrageous campaign, which uses the breast cancer epidemic to improve the American public's perception of KFC, and increase the company's profits from the sale of pink buckets of chicken...  KFC (with Susan G. Komen for the Cure's blessing) is engaged in one of the worst examples of pinkwashing. A pinkwasher is a company that purports to care about breast cancer by promoting a pink-ribboned product while at the same time manufacturing products that contribute to the disease. In this case, KFC is encouraging people to buy pink buckets of chicken to demonstrate its alleged commitment to ending the breast cancer epidemic. However, KFC's food is unhealthy and much of it is marketed to low-income communities. KFC thus contributes to the significant problem of providing poor food choices for low-income communities in the United States, who disproportionately suffer from poor breast cancer outcomes and other problems that may be exacerbated by an unhealthy diet.

Instead of partnering with a corporation that sells unhealthy food, I believe that Susan G. Komen for the Cure should work with companies that do not contribute to the breast cancer epidemic."

I would like to add that KFC's grilled chicken isn't a better choice than its fried -- the grilled chicken is known to contain carcinogenic substances that contribute to cancer, as reported by Physicians for Responsible Medicine.

It's unfortunate that an organization like Susan G. Komen for the Cure chooses to a support a company that contributes to cancer.

Please do not participate in this campaign.

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