SHOP FOR A CAUSE
A poem.
Every October, without fail, the beauty industry wraps itself up in a pink satin ribbon in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Products appear in a cheerful parade, in shades from champagne to Schiaparelli — pink lipstick, pink hair spray, pink deodorant, little pink plastic bottles by the dozen. A small portion of the profits is donated to organizations supporting breast cancer research, or breast cancer patients, or breast cancer survivors; beauty brands pocket the rest.
The faux-magnanimous money grab feels more personal than usual this year. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2021, and the months since have been a blur of biopsies, surgeries, radiation, reconstruction, chemotherapy, and coming to terms with her (and my) mortality. She’s doing well now, but I still can’t type the words “breast cancer” without crying off a coat of limited-edition, pink-tubed mascara. (Juuust kidding about that last part. I would never buy metastasis-inspired makeup when I could donate $20 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation directly instead. There is absolutely no need to involve industrial production waste, cosmetic chemicals, plastic packaging, and potentially carcinogenic shipping fuel in this charitable act, thanks!)
And so, in lieu of a newsletter, I present: a poem comprised of copy-and-pasted subject lines and sentence fragments, each pulled from a different email I received about or during Breast Cancer Awareness Month — sent by beauty brands, by PR reps, by news outlets, by newsletters. A snapshot of the times. (You can read previous “inbox poems” here, here, here, here and here.)
SHOP FOR A CAUSE
This October
support Breast Cancer Awareness Month with beauty and wellness products!
After all,
1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime
and
they will need to look good and feel good as they are battling this disease.
What better feeling is there than shopping?
I mean—
What better feeling is there than shopping for a cause?
Buy our
lash and brow enhancing serums
Pro-Collagen Rose Facial Oil
and
Firm Believer Body Contouring Serum
to help women
handle pain and grief.
AVAILABLE NOW!
SHOP PINK!
Fight against breast cancer
(but don’t forget to
fight the appearance of dark circles, puffiness, lines and wrinkles
fight blemishes fast
and
battle any dryness
too).
All month, all products will be 10% off
10% of every sale of Lip2Cheek will be donated
10% of all Hydrating Body Cream sales will go to support BCRF
10% off all purchases with code THINKPINK
and 10% of all orders will go to BCA charitable organizations.
The other
90 percent,
well…
Beauty has become a rare bright spot for the retail industry despite soaring inflation.
revenue jumped 16% year-over-year, totaling $6 billion.
The beauty category—
the fastest-growing category—
expands like
a malignant tumor, which seeks to preserve itself by growing more of itself.
NEW LAUNCH!
This. Also as a reminder, there’s lots of alcohol brands that pink wash this month (my flight offered me a breast cancer cocktail) and there’s been hundreds of studies showing the link between booze and breast cancer.
I shivered when I got to the malignant tumor line - just brilliant to swap the words that (I assume) were written about actual cancer to describe the beauty industry.
I think a lot of people have a vague awareness of “pinkwashing” and they get that shopping isn’t the most effective way to support a cause. But as you point out, it’s worse than that - the industry itself with its cosmetic chemicals and waste and plastic is an underlying CAUSE of literal cancer among other illnesses both physical and spiritual. When you lay it out like that it’s horrifying.