Maybe Bill Maher is right. Maybe America is stupid. We must be. How else could marketers continue to get away with selling us poison, calling it food and donating to a cause near and dear to our fat-clogged hearts? And for our part, we trudge along behind their pied piper sales of fat, sugar and salt, bloated, sick, pale and always ready for more.
KFC has really taken the cake this time...along with their co-conspirators in this crime against women's health, Susan G. Komen for the Cure. For all their malarkey about the 'cure' with races, pink apparel, appliances and little ribbons, they decide to team up with one of the most toxic for health food companies on earth to raise money. Only in America could we take something as bad for your health and gluttonous as eating fried chicken in a bucket and turn it into an act of charity.
Their stated goal is to 'make the single largest donation to fight breast cancer ever' with their 'Buckets for the Cure' campaign. So I guess now we have to eat a breast to save a breast. Yikes!
The iconic KFC red bucket turning Susan G. pink in support of breast cancer is an outrage. It is another, in a long line of exploitations of women's health by Susan G. Komen for the Cure which seems to have at its core, the health of its bank account and not that of women ... or their breasts.
Why is no one protesting this alliance? I know we live in a world of free enterprise and free choice and all that, but really? Of all the corporations peddling toxic food to our families, the Susan G. Komen people thought that KFC gave them the best image for healthy living and the cure of breast cancer? Or maybe they didn't see past the 'single largest donation' piece in the agreement.
Now, The Colonel's suit and the KFC headquarters will turn pink as part of the 'Buckets for the Cure' campaign, which runs until May 23.
"Through our Buckets For the Cure campaign, the KFC family nationwide is helping to reach millions of women and men with breast health education, and attempting to make the single largest donation ever to Susan G. Komen for the Cure in an effort to help end breast cancer forever," said Javier Benito, executive vice president of marketing and food innovation for KFC. Seriously? They must also believe Bill Maher when he says we're stupid to make a statement like that. I would like to have Mr. Benito explain to America how exactly eating fried or grilled chicken in a bucket can help end breast cancer forever. All it will do is make America sicker, fatter and more prone to diseases like breast cancer, keeping KFC and certainly Susan G. Komen in business for some time to come.
With a hefty donation of 50 cents per bucket sold, 'KFC and its franchises allow us to continue our lifesaving work funding research, providing breast health education and screenings and providing direct help for millions of women and men in communities across the United States,' said Katrina McGee, Senior Vice President-Global Business Development and Partnerships for Komen. How dare they even hint that this alliance has one thing to do with the health of women?
According to Neal Barnard, MD, president and founder of Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine (http://www.pcrm.org), both the grilled and fried chicken served up in these pretty pink buckets contributes to the development of cancer, including breast and prostate cancers. 'Grilled chicken can cause cancer and consumers deserve to know that this supposedly healthy product is actually just as bad for them as high-fat fried chicken. Even a grilled chicken salad increases the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer and other forms of this lethal disease.'
Even the first lady of Kentucky, Jane Beshar is on the toxic bandwagon saying, "The Governor and I encourage all Kentuckians and Americans to join us in partnering with Kentucky Fried Chicken to 'Go Pink' to increase awareness of breast cancer." As she lights the Kentucky State Capitol and the Governor's mansion in pink, I wonder if she is considering the cancer being produced by the sale of all those little pink buckets of chicken. With all due respect, Ms. Beshar, with a woman's chance of developing breast cancer sometime in her life being a little less than one in eight, everyone is aware of breast cancer. And thanks to people like those at KFC and your support, Susan G. Komen can count on the money continuing to flow into their bank account...because no one eating fried chicken is preventing or eliminating breast cancer any time soon.
Now this is in no way an indictment of the brave women who survive and support each other, who race, climb, cook and proudly support the health of other women. This is about organizations and corporations who prey on women when they are their most vulnerable: when they are sick, frightened, about to lose a symbol of their womanhood. This is about trying to cover up the toxic food you sell with a pretty color and a big donation to a cause that you know tugs on the heart strings of people everywhere.
Spend some time on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure website and you'll see lots of resources for women to find information once diagnosed. You'll also find sections advising women about living a healthy lifestyle by eating a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight. But how can they really talk about healthy eating when they partner with the very kinds of companies that destroy the health of all people, not just women? How can they accept one penny from companies like KFC whose products create the exact health problems this organization is sworn to defeat? Someone is tilting at the wrong windmill.
And who will suffer? Us. Because gullible, spoiled Americans who want any excuse to eat the very foods they know are stealing their health will run to the nearest KFC to do their part for 'The Cure.' And if that means eating fried chicken out of a pink bucket, then by God, we'll do it. After all, it's for charity. And who can deny that cute little girl on the billboards for Susan G. Komen for the Cure the elimination of breast cancer in her lifetime? Only in America can we justify and excuse the behavior of behemoth organizations as they lead us like lambs to the slaughter. All they have to do is color their toxins pink and we go all soft and fuzzy for them. Isn't that Colonel a good guy? We get fried chicken and he works tirelessly to help cure cancer.
It's in the hands of women now. They are our breasts. We need to stand up for ourselves and say no...no to the lying, the manipulation, the poison and the exploitation of our health. We need to live natural lives and eat whole unprocessed plant-based foods. Then and only then is there a chance for the cure that has been dangled in front of us for years from the end of a little pink ribbon.
Follow Christina Pirello on Twitter: www.twitter.com/christinacooks
John Robbins: Greed, Cancer and Pink KFC Buckets
Darya Pino, Ph.D: How to Convince Family and Friends to Eat Healthy
www.BucketsForTheCause.com
I am horrified by the strategic decision to join legs, breasts and thighs with KFC. What a statement about the organization-- a disappointing one at that. While I don't like pink and I don't care to be called "sister" by someone who is not my sister, Komen created such incredible message about breast cancer. Now they have created the incredible message that it doesn't matter-- nothing matters.
Shame on them.
I am trying to organize a protest at their Dallas headquarters. Will be posting details at http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=826#!/group.php?gid=120671484615719. If anybody wants to join, pls do!
Efforts to end breast cancer and provide access to affordable treatment for survivors are undermined by these marketing campaigns. They create the illusion that billions of dollars are being raised to help those living with breast cancer. Not true. The federal government funds most breast cancer research, as they should. Yet millions of breast cancer survivors have no access to affordable health care. Breast cancer needs to be treated and cured, it doesn't need to help someone sell fried chicken, toilet paper, or other consumer goods.
You DO NOT have to buy or eat the chicken. You are free to make a donation to ANY charity that you deem worthy.
It will be ok.
I don't believe Christiana needs pacifying, but rather our thanks for her great piece.
Women and men can and should tell Komen and KFC exactly what they think of this. Consumers have enormous power in this society. Let's use it.
KFC have plenty of dairy on the menu - I understand.
Muhc research has centred on genes and genomics - without yielding much. Some further attention o the impact of autonomc nerves and nerve growht factor may be helpful given that there is an emerging view that many Western diseases including cancer arise out of injuries to autonomic nerves caused by our diet.
it's the almighty dollar that is really killing us!
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If I can't eat a piece of grilled chicken breast without the skin... and I can't eat any dairy, etc. Just tell me that all I can eat is organic lettuce already, and I will go buy my coffin.
http://www.uneasypink.com/2010/04/pinkwashing-update.html