Carolyn Dean MD, ND
“The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy." --Alex Carey (Australian academic)
One of the most all-encompassing propaganda campaigns about the issue of cancer is that which is called “The Pink Ribbon Campaign.” This campaign is quite likely the largest propaganda campaign ever organized and has, over the years, followed, to the letter, Bernays’ formula of getting the most prominent people, corporations, public agencies, celebrities private foundations involved in a single project. – Raise money to educate people about the perils of breast cancer.
All anyone has to do is google “Pink Ribbon Campaign” on the net to see just how much this campaign has become part of our shared global culture. It is not just the old American Cancer Society with a million volunteers going from door to door in their neighborhoods. It’s corporate America “partnering” with the project and carrying the torch to every hamlet and village on the planet.
Annual “Walk for the Cure,” “Race for the Cure,” and other public events are staged in the name of the Pink Ribbon Campaign. Fabric companies have manufactured special “pink ribbon” designs so quilters involved with “quilt for the cure” quilting contests can do so with the official pink ribbon fabrics. Entire lines of clothing, especially jogging togs, have been designed along with accessories and hundreds of individual products so every entrepreneur can get in the act, not just the usual souvenir T-shirt folks. In addition, every corporation and retailer that wants to be a visible part of the local event has something tangible to sell “for the cause.”
The plain fact of the matter is that the American Cancer Society is not in the business of finding the causes and the cures for cancer. It is in the business of raising money to spread around to any entity that wants to support the agenda of keeping cancer a money-making proposition. According to Prevent Cancer Coalition (PCC) and others who have been critical of Cancer Incorporated, the ACS is not only the wealthiest “non-profit” with assets close to a billion dollars, it focuses only on improving access to screening (drumming up more customers), diagnosis and treatment (read: more use of medical services, particularly drugs) and not on real prevention, thanks to its alliances and financial dependence on the cancer industry.
In a 1996 press release, Prevent Cancer Coalition publicly cut the boloney factor out of the longtime National Breast Cancer Awareness campaign.
“Commenting on the anniversary of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), Dr. Samuel Epstein, Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC) stated, ‘A decade-old multi-million dollar deal between National Breast Cancer Awareness Month sponsors and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) has produced reckless misinformation on breast cancer.’Zeneca Pharmaceutical, a U.S. subsidiary and recent spinoff of ICI, has been the sole funder of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month since 1984. ICI is one of the largest manufacturers of petrochemical and chlorinated organic products, such as acetochlor and vinyl chloride, and the sole manufacturer of Tamoxifen, the world's top-selling cancer drug used for breast cancer. Financial sponsorship by Zeneca/ICI gives them editorial control over every leaflet, poster, publication, and commercial produced by NBCAM. NBCAM is promoted by the cancer establishment, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society (ACS), with their corporate sponsors.ICI has supported the NCI/ACS blame-the-victim theory on the causes of breast and other cancers. This theory attributes escalating cancer rates to heredity and faulty lifestyle, rather than avoidable exposures to industrial carcinogens contaminating the air, water, food, consumer products, and the workplace.‘The ICI/NBCAM public relations campaign has prevented women from knowing of avoidable causes of breast cancer,’ concluded Dr. Epstein." [Read]
Anyone who is involved with The Pink Ribbon Campaign in good faith, might well read the testimony we’ve listed at the end of this article from The House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight held in 1998 in regards access to alternative therapies. We’ve highlighted several specifically related to breast cancer and cancer in general and we have also provided the link to the entire list of testimonies. Burying the grim realities of breast cancer in an upbeat Pink Ribbon Campaign we find somewhat tasteless, to say the least.
One of Elissa’s favorite propaganda techniques to watch for is when some reasonably positive story is reported about some natural substance or treatment. There always has to be a qualifier in the story to suggest this great news might not be true, and some MD who knows nothing is usually interviewed (as the "medical expert”) so he can warn people to be cautious.
The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, although in publication for 38 years, has never been listed on the government database MEDLINE.