Pinkwashing Turns on Itself with Breast Cancer Awareness Gun

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October was Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the group Breast Cancer Action [6] seized on the opportunity to promote its Think Before you Pink [7] campaign to raise awareness of how companies are increasingly exploiting breast cancer as a marketing device to sell products -- some of which are actually harmful to women's health. Pink ribbon campaigns are offering up some bizarre, albeit benign products like a breast cancer awareness toaster [8] and a breast cancer awareness floating Beer Pong table [9]. But the most bizarre item yet to have a pink ribbon slapped on it must be Smith & Wesson's Pink Breast Cancer Awareness 9 mm Pistol [10], promoted by a woman named Julie Goloski [10], Smith and Wesson's Consumer Program Manager and a sharpshooter herself. Goloski is promoting S&W's breast cancer awareness pistol on her Facebook page [11], saying "October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness M&P’s are shipping to dealers. I am thrilled to have my name associated with such a worthy cause and one of my favorite firearms." According to a 2008 report [12] from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control [13], firearms are the second most common cause of violent deaths of women, accounting for 29.2% of all violent deaths among females in the U.S. in 2008.