Think Pink in a Movember to Remember: Collecting for a Cause and Its Impact on Research and Clinical Activity

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“There is not a direct relationship between the diseases we hear most about and either their occurrence in society or the lethality and the amount of suffering they create.”¹This statement, made by the Medical Ethicist Kerry Bowman from the University of Toronto, was lodged in a Global Health and Fitness column in a Canadian newspaper. Most seasoned professionals currently in the health care business recognize that high-profile marketing often leads to funding. Marketing for health care support is not immune from the tactics of the straightforward personal pleas of famous stars who ask us to give generously, or the more subliminally seductive “asks” that lure investors to trust as a result of ploys made from more subtle attempts within the public eye. This can be readily seen in the pink ribbons for breast cancer and more recently the Sergeant Pepper moustache emblem that represents prostate cancer research and other health care needs of men. The moustache emblems have done remarkably well in raising funds for male charities. This more recent campaign has driven men to grow moustaches in the month of November, for the purpose of raising awareness of male health-related issues. Bowman discusses the creative strategies for campaigning such as “Movember,” which began for a week in November 2004 and has slowly but surely evolved into a monthlong event. Bowman calls upon readers to contemplate the other side of such campaigns, namely those that do not have sponsor champions and therefore receive little public interest. Such “funding orphans,” as she calls them, imply that those diseases that do not have seductive campaigns or drivers to support funds for diseases risk considerable lack of support.

Wouldn't it be nice if the public were privy to the details of how their donated monies were used? Marketing with symbolic emblems …