Let the pinkwashing begin

I'm finding it no coincidence that the day I buy my first pumpkin spice coffee is also the day I see my first pink ribbon. It was Labor Day, after all, a full 4 weeks before the actual start of Breast Cancer Awareness month. So it stands to reason if a little is good, a lot is better, right?

Wrong. Everyone gets a little too 'pink happy' this time of year, if you ask me. One of the harbingers of the ubiquitous pink ribbon is Avon, the cosmetics company. Surely you see where this is headed.

Yup, I'm setting Avon in my sights. Won't you join me?

It all started when I read this post by Erin Hyman over at b'matzav (that's transliterated Hebrew for 'in the thick of it') about her choice to raise money for the Breast Cancer Fund rather than the larger Avon or Komen foundations.

Few of us can say we haven't had a brush with Avon in some form or another. Either your mom was a consultant, or your aunt hosted Avon parties, or your grandmother gifted you Avon cosmetics to 'get you started.'

And of course, there's the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. The walk launched in 2003 and is now held in 8 major US cities. It's a huge, huge event that aims to raise money for breast cancer awareness, treatment and prevention.

According to the Avon, more than $423 million was raised by the walk events from 2003-2011. The website also says that Avon Philanthropy donated almost $780 million to Breast Cancer programs globally from 1992-2012. That is HUGE money!! But for posterity's sake let's pretend we believe their numbers. My beef, after all, isn't the reporting or marketing of a not-for-profit organization. 

It's the position of its for-profit parent/sister/whatever company that WOULD NOT participate in the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. That has only four, just FOUR, current products listed in EWG's Skin Deep database. Out of the hundreds that it sells.

C'mon, Avon. What do your customers (and supporters) really get for all the rah rah empowerment baloney that you serve up? Besides products that contain a bunch of junky chemicals, that is.

The future of cosmetics is this: consumers demanding that their bodies are no longer treated like laboratory test tubes. We shouldn't be buying whatever manufacturers or retailers tell us to; they should be making what we want to buy!

Look for a complaint letter to Avon coming soon.

Yours in every color BUT pink,
Jazzy