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Cause marketing

The Organization raises over $35 million a year from over 60 cause marketing partnerships. These include prominent campaigns, such as those with Yoplait, which runs the Save Lids to Save Lives program, and a partnership with American Airlines.

Cause marketing allows Komen to associate the breast cancer brand with its organization. by promoting the "fear, hope and goodness" associated with the breast cancer brand, Komen is able to promote itself, breast cancer awareness, its sponsoring corporations, and conscientious consumption.

Events

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is the world's largest fundraising event for breast cancer. It consists of a series of 5K runs and fitness walks to raise money for breast cancer, to raise awareness of the disease, to celebrate those who have survived breast cancer, and memorialize those who have not.

The first race was run in Dallas, Texas in 1983, with 800 participants. The 25th Anniversary of the Race was celebrated in 2008. In 2009, it was renamed as Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. In 2010, there were about 130 races worldwide. Additionally in 2010, over 1.6 million people participated in the race, which utilized over 100,000 volunteers.

The primary source of revenue for the event is donations collected by the participants in the race. Three-quarters of the net proceeds from the event are used locally to pay for community outreach programs, breast health education, and breast cancer screening and treatment projects run by the Komen affiliate. The remaining quarter is sent to the central organization.

Komen's other nationwide events include:

A group participating in a Komen Race for the Cure event

• Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure — a 60-mile walk for women and men: participants walk 60 miles (96.6 km) in three days to help raise millions of dollars for breast cancer research and patient support programs
• Susan G. Komen Marathon for the Cure — a grassroots fundraising program offering fitness enthusiasts the chance to join in the fight against breast cancer by running or walking a full (26.2 mi) or half (13.1 mi) marathon.
• Susan G. Komen Passionately Pink for the Cure — a year-round fundraising and education program allowing participants to choose any date, invite friends, wear pink, have fun and raise money for the cause.
• Susan G. Komen Bowl for the Cure — a year-round fund-raising and breast cancer awareness initiative founded in 2000 and sponsored by USBC and The Bowling Foundation.

Mobile fundraising

In October 2008, Susan G. Komen for the Cure launched a mobile donating campaign, allowing supporters to donate money by texting.

Controversy and criticism

Pinkwashing in cause marketing

Komen is a key entity in the controversy over "pinkwashing"—the use of breast cancer and the pink ribbon by corporate marketers, especially to promote products that might be unhealthy—in return for a donation to the cause. Komen benefits from these corporate partnerships, receiving over $55 million a year from 216 corporate sponsors. However, critics say many of these promotions are deceptive to consumers and benefit the companies more than the charity.

Some campaigns require that consumers mail proof of purchase for a promoted item before the manufacturer donates a few cents per purchase to charity; some have a cap on the maximum amount donated, with all sales beyond this fixed limit benefiting only the company, not the promoted cause.

Since their Save Lids to Save Lives campaign began in 1998, Yoplait has donated more than $25 million to Komen. In 2010 their annual maximum commitment was raised to $1.6 million. In return, a major sponsor such as Yoplait obtains an exclusive contract; no other yogurt manufacturer (such as Dreyer's, who inquired in 2000) has the opportunity to use the branding.

In 2002, credit card operator American Express launched a "Charge for a Cure" campaign which claimed that "in the search for a cure, every dollar counts." The amount donated per qualifying transaction, regardless of purchase amount, was one penny.

In 2007, the manufacturers of Jingle Jugs touted their $50,000 donation to Komen in promotions for a cross-country tour to market a novelty product depicting female breasts which move in rhythmic motion to a popular song.

For the 2008 model year, the Ford Motor Company built a branded limited edition of 2500 Ford Mustang motorcars with a "Warriors in Pink" package as part of their long-running association with Komen; an additional 1000 were offered for 2009's model year. Women employed in the automotive plastics industry were almost five times as likely to develop breast cancer, prior to menopause, as women in a control group. In May 2009, handgun maker Smith and Wesson announced a donation to the Massachusetts affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure of proceeds collected from the sale of the M&P9 JG, "a full-size pistol engraved with the ‘Awareness Ribbon’ on the slide and packaged with two pink grip inserts". The funds donated are to benefit breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment.

In April 2010, Komen paired with fast food restaurant chain KFC to offer "Buckets for the Cure," a promotion in which fried and grilled chicken was sold in pink branded buckets. The collaboration garnered criticism from media outlets including The Colbert Report and Bitch magazine, and raised criticisms about the promotion of unhealthy eating habits and obesity, since obesity itself contributes to breast cancer. KFC contributed over $4.2 million to Komen, the largest single contribution in the organization's history. The partnership with KFC, which has since ended, allowed Komen "to reach many millions of women that they had been unable to reach before," said Brinker.

In April 2011 Komen introduced its own-brand $60 perfume "Promise Me", complete with promotional appearances by Komen CEO Nancy Brinker on the Home Shopping Network, only to encounter opposition due to coumarin, oxybenzone, toluene and galaxolide as potentially harmful ingredients. Komen stated its intention to have the product reformulated but has refused to withdraw existing stocks of the "Promise Me" product from distribution.

In 2012, WWE promoted breast cancer awareness by adorning their sets with pink ribbons with a pink middle rope on the ring, filming numerous PSAs and selling special John Cena "Rise Above Cancer" merchandise. A one million dollar donation from WWE was presented to Susan G. Komen representatives in an in-ring ceremony during the October 29, 2012 episode of Raw. The partnership continued in 2013, this time with a variety of special superstar merchandising in pink.

To critics of cause marketing the use of a potentially deadly disease as a marketing vehicle detracts from the original message. San Francisco-based advocacy group Breast Cancer Action has opposed the widespread commercialisation of the cause with an ongoing "Think Before You Pink" campaign, established in 2002. In the words of one member of the IV League, a group of terminal (Stage IV) breast cancer patients interviewed in the Léa Pool, National Film Board of Canada documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc., "It's like they're using our disease to profit and that's not OK." The documentary directly juxtaposes an interview with a group of former plastic workers in Windsor, Ontario with the cause marketing to sell Ford automobiles.