I've been following the Komen/Planned Parenthood debacle (kerfuffle?) since it broke on Tuesday. For several years I've been bothered by all the pink everywhere in October. I didn't understand how pink toaster really helped conquer breast cancer when it seemed obvious (to me) that only a very small portion of each toaster sale was going to Komen and that of that, some large portion must be going to marketing so that women everywhere would buy the toasters (and all the other pink stuff).
Frankly, I never supported Komen. I don't think there's a race anywhere near me (the nearest one I can think of is a little more than 70 miles away, and based on my family history, there were other diseases more important to me.
Then again, until Wednesday, I'd never supported Planned Parenthood either. I was lucky growing up and had access to health care. I've been lucky as a grown up with access to health care through my employer. If I didn't have health care through my employer, I'm not sure what I'd do as I'm not familiar with a local Planned Parenthood clinic either.
But I knew plenty of people who wore pink in October and I thought that I "got" why breast cancer awareness was such a big deal. And it seemed to me that it was a really easy thing for companies to support. But what company on this planet goes into a sponsorship thinking, "hmm, I'll piss off half my potential customers but make the other half thrilled. O.K. Let's do it!" I can't think of one. All sorts of private individuals make controversial choices, some support choice, some support lack of choice. But companies? They need customers.
And I sat, transfixed, in front of my computer reading the stories. Stories about people and organizations who were thrilled. Stories about people and organizations who were angry. And I wondered, what on earth was happening and why.
It made no sense to me that a benign (no pun intended) organization would stomp into the middle of an incredibly controversial issue and expect companies would be o.k. with it. For instance, I don't use a lot of batteries, but I tend to buy Duracell. I saw that Energizer with its cute pink bunny had a Facebook posting on their partnership with Komen (I think on both their site and the Komen site) and saw some postings from folks thrilled by the decision and tons of postings from people saying they'd boycott. I also read, somewhere, someone who posted anonymously on some article that if you were going to boycott all the Komen sponsors you'd be walking around hungry and naked because so many companies were sponsors. And I wondered how many people who said they'd boycott really would. But still, I didn't think any company would go into a Komen sponsorship thinking it'd be great to be in the middle of a controversy. The whole point in a Komen sponsorship is that it's so noncontroversial.
Well, not anymore.
I think it was on Thursday that I ran into a really interesting article on the PR aspect of the issue. If you've gotten this far, go to the link. The article is really interesting:
http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2012/02/01/the-accidental-rebranding-of-komen-for-the-cure/
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