Breast cancer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Breast cancer - Essay Example All these issues of giving importance to early screening, bringing into public the success stories of breast cancer survivors, raising money to help deprived sufferers, etc, etc are being carried out as part of Pink Ribbon breast cancer awareness campaign. This campaign is the subject of the article, Pink Ribbon Fatigue written by Barron H. Lerner, a physician and medical historian, in New York Times. However, the article looks at the negative side of this awareness campaign, by discussing how the Pink Ribbon campaign is not doing enough to solve this public health issue, as there are no major constructive actions or follow-ups. As stated by the author of the article, although the Pink Ribbon campaign has been a â€Å"spectacular success†, particularly in its attempt to bring recognition and importantly funding to the breast cancer cause, sizable sections view there is not much practical steps. â€Å"Pink ribbon paraphernalia saturate shopping malls, billboards, magazines, television and other entertainment venues†¦The pervasiveness of the pink ribbon campaign leads many people to believe that the fight against breast cancer is progressing, when in truth it’s barely begun.† (Lerner). This has led to growing impatience among some critics, who are deriding the â€Å"pink ribbon culture† as just another publicity exercise or marketing gimmick carried out with the aid of pharmaceutical companies, who have vested interests in them. The main grouse of these critics and which is turning breast cancer into a major public health issue, is that, awareness is not translating into actio n to cut down on the number of victims, and also not enough actions are being taken to alleviate the problems of the current sufferers, with wrong or main focus only on the survivors. The National Breast Cancer Coalition, a highly visible activist group based in Washington, D.C. has also taken a swipe at pink culture â€Å"and go beyond awareness into action to end breast cancer.†