How to Avoid Common Branding Mistakes During Breast Cancer Awareness Month

By Christina Dorr Drake, CEO & Co-Founder of Willa's Organic Oat Milk< /em>.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is October, a time when our feeds are flooded with pinkified merchandise, NFL uniform updates and brands co-opting the conversation.

The goal of breast cancer awareness is to raise awareness of the importance of early detection, especially self-examinations and mammograms. Curiously, the conversation around self-exams is often absent from brand messaging during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Likewise, the images continue to be predominantly white women in a limited age range, propagating the harmful myth that it does not affect young women, men, people of color, or non-binary people. /p>

Find a balance.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 36 while starting a business. I had no family history. My only risk factor was that, like 75% of women in their thirties, I had dense breasts. I was extremely lucky to have caught my lump at the start of a self-exam, followed by a visit to my doctor and my first mammogram. I am now cancer free, and my oncologists assure me that it is very unlikely to come back. As a survivor and brand builder, this experience has reshaped my thinking about Breast Cancer Awareness Month and how brands can participate as true allies.

It may come as a surprise that breast cancer survivors and oncologists are frustrated with the messages they see in October. Marketing tactics typical of Breast Cancer Awareness Month often unintentionally alienate brands from breast cancer patient and survivor communities, and further spread myths around the disease.

Here are the top three pitfalls to avoid and how to support the cause in a meaningful way.

1. Avoid pinkwashing. Have a direct impact.

In an effort to avoid the word cancer and any negative emotion, brands often choose a path of toxically positive pink. Nothing about cancer is rosy. There's been a lot of talk about how the color pink actually alienates patients and survivors, trivializing what they're going through. More importantly, pink spreads the dangerous myth that breast cancer is a disease that only affects women, rather than helping to raise awareness of the incidence of breast cancer in men and non-binary people.

Instead, consider partnering with an organization to help spread awareness of their mission, by donating a percentage of your website sales proceeds or sharing a percentage profits for a specific period in October or longer. Donating helps ensure that your support is genuine and impactful. It also helps to ensure that your campaign is not seen as underperforming or an effort to steal the show.

There are dozens of breast cancer organizations worth supporting, which means you can choose one that will particularly match your brand values ​​and customer base. If your target audience is Gen Z or Millennials, consider partnering with an organization that supports young breast cancer patients and survivors. For example, 5Under40 is a phenomenal organization that supports women under 40 who are patients and survivors with everything from mental health treatment to post-surgery occupational therapy. The Breasties supports young women with cancer and survivors nationwide and raises funds for metastatic breast cancer research. If the organization...