Beware the pink marketing machine

Thanks to Sobering Thoughts for highlighting this one:

Ryan Basen writes at Sports On Earth about the NFL’s “A Crucial Catch” breast cancer awareness campaign in support of the American Cancer Socitey (ACS). Basen says the month-long explosion in pink in pro football is less about charity and more about enhancing the participants’ brands:

This philanthropic effort, however, has ulterior motives besides aiding the breast cancer cause. To wit:

The NFL wants to attract and cultivate new female fans, and to enhance its image.

The NFL’s partners in this campaign — including Pepsi, Ticketmaster and Barclays — want to enhance their images as well.

ACS hopes to engender support for its breast cancer awareness programs, instead of those supported by foundations with different ideas about how to counter the disease.

In terms of the dollar amounts that the NFL donates to the cause, it is practically microscopic compared to what the NFL rakes in each year:

The league hardly donates much to “fight” breast cancer. You’d need to use scientific notation with negative exponents to express what percentage of the NFL’s annual revenues it contributes via A Crucial Catch. The campaign raised a combined $4.5 million during its first four years (2009-2012), including $1.5 million last year. League-wide revenues approached $8 billion in 2009.

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