KFC Breast Cancer Effort Raises $4.2 Million
Source: Louisville Courier-Journal – 07/22/10
Breast cancer survivor Reanna Smith-Hamblin didn't eat any KFC chicken during the recent “Buckets for the Cure” campaign, which raised a record $4.2million for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. But she didn't mind having her name listed on the campaign's bright pink buckets.
“Fried chicken is not good for you. We all know that,” said Smith-Hamblin, 35. Recovering from chemotherapy and a double mastectomy last year, Smith-Hamblin said she eats lean meats, whole grains, fruits and vegetables instead.
“But people are going to eat fried chicken because they love KFC,” said Smith-Hamblin, who is OK with the result — millions of dollars raised for breast cancer research.
Some breast cancer survivors and activist groups argue, however, that the partnership that just ended between KFC and Komen was “pinkwashing” at its worst.
Shortly after the fundraiser began in April at the more than 5,000 KFC restaurants nationwide, Breast Cancer Action, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, countered with its “What the Cluck” campaign, urging its 32,000 members to write protest letters to KFC and Komen.
“If the product on which the ribbon has been placed is bad for your health, we think that is hypocrisy, and you can't have it both ways,” said Barbara Brenner, director of Breast Cancer Action. “Make no mistake. Every pink bucket purchase will do more to benefit KFC's bottom line than breast cancer.”
Officials with Louisville-based Yum! Brands, parent of the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut chains, disagree. The $4.2million check that KFC will present to Susan G. Komen for the Cure — representing about 8 million buckets of chicken at a donation of 50 cents each — is “a huge amount of money and a huge amount of awareness raised,” KFC spokesman Rick Maynard said.
“The only way you can feel about this is good. Lives will be saved as a result.”
The emotionally charged controversy over the campaign stems from clear research linking obesity as a risk factor for breast cancer in older women, and the view that eating fewer processed foods, combined with exercise, is the best defense against cancer.
To reduce cancer risk, the American Cancer Society cautions against processed meats and refined foods and sugar, urging consumers to switch to fruits and vegetables and low-fat foods.
Barbara Robertson, a 10-year breast cancer survivor and retired medical technologist from Fern Creek, said she tries to stay healthy by avoiding fat and fried foods — and was turned off by the KFC advertising blitz that featured a Colonel Harland Sanders impersonator in a pink suit and a KFC outlet on Westport Road briefly painted bright pink.
“I don't think the two should go hand in hand. I am not happy about the pink bucket,” said Robertson, 67.
KFC only featured its new Kentucky Grilled Chicken in the “Buckets for the Cure” advertising. The grilled version boasts three to five times less fat and two to three times fewer calories than KFC Original Recipe and Extra Crispy chicken.
“Buckets for the Cure” arose from Yum employees who lobbied the company to contribute to Komen's crusade against breast cancer around Mother's Day, Maynard said. “This was a real, heartfelt campaign,” Maynard said, adding, “while we were … raising money for Komen, we were also raising the profile of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.”
The pink buckets came labeled with a website where fast-food customers could learn more about the disease. That alone spread awareness about breast cancer risk, especially in 800 communities where KFC is sold but Komen does not fund education, research, and patient assistance, Komen spokeswoman Andrea Rader said.
The world's largest breast cancer advocacy organization does fund programs in 122 U.S. communities, she added.
Rader said Komen officials weren't surprised by the negative reactions to the KFC campaign, but “if you're going to do this kind of work, you can't sit in the office and say I want everybody to eat whole grains and vitamin D.”
“You have to be out there where people are. You have to be meeting them where they live. This was a tremendous opportunity to go where we are not there yet.”
Rader noted that Komen will not put the pink ribbon label on just any product. She cited tobacco and alcohol-related brands as two categories it avoids.
Besides not smoking, research also shows women can lower their breast cancer risk by moderating their alcohol intake.
Last year, Komen spent $93million in U.S. communities on patient assistance, education and mammography, among other services, Rader said. From other corporations, including Conde Nast, Komen raises $50million annually. Nationwide, 125 affiliates generate another $350 million annually through the Race for the Cure and other programs.
Churchill Downs' second annual “Pink Out” event generated a total of $223,000, and included $1 for each fan at the Kentucky Oaks last April. Louisville-area Komen supporters raised $600,000 last October in the 16th annual running of the Race for the Cure downtown.
In all, Komen returned $617,000 to 18 local programs supporting breast health last year, said Amanda Caffee, Louisville Komen affiliate coordinator.
Marion Nestle, author of “Food Politics” and a Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, and professor of sociology at New York University, said she was disappointed but not surprised by the KFC-Komen venture.
Healthy eating to prevent cancer, or illness in general, has few advocates in the United States, said Nestle, who has advised the American Cancer Society and taught nutrition as associate dean at the University of California, San Francisco, medical school.
“To me, it sends the wrong message that the best way to raise money for something you believe in is to eat junk food,” Nestle said of the KFC effort. “That doesn't make any sense to me.”
Missy Wislocki, a staff member at Gilda's Club in Louisville and breast cancer survivor, agreed, adding that in her view, Komen's partnership with KFC suggests it is OK to eat fast food.
“A lot of people like to bury their head in the sand. I think it is a shame,” said Wislocki, 47. A nurse and health educator, Wislocki said she rigorously tries to consume only organically raised meat and vegetables, with an emphasis on low-fat foods. “If you know there are things that can cause any type of cancer, why would you take the risk?” she asked.
The KFC controversy pitting Komen against the Breast Cancer Alliance marked a rare clash in the nonprofit world, damaging Komen's reputation, said Nancy Schwartz, owner of a Maplewood, N.J., marketing consulting firm catering to nonprofits.
“For KFC … it is a total win for them. There's an indirect association with health by simply being the partner in this project. It is brilliant,” Schwartz said. “Komen was a little shortsighted. … They put money before the mission.”
Fast-food brand consultant Tom Dougherty is not so sure KFC came out on top. Fast-food companies “are viewed as being terribly unhealthy and not terribly concerned about health,” said Dougherty, president and CEO of Stealing Share, based in Greensboro, N.C.
KFC's partnership with Komen, he added, “looks self-serving. Therefore, they should not have done it.” Locally, many breast cancer survivors say they appreciate the alliance between KFC and Komen.
“The good outweighs the bad,” said Judy Sherman, adding that in November she will celebrate 35 years of being free of breast cancer. Sherman, who lives in the Highlands, says she checks nutrition labels carefully to limit her intake of sugar, fat and processed foods. Breast cancer “made me so aware,” added Sherman, who was diagnosed at age 42. “People just have to use their judgment about what they eat.”
Lydia Bond, an East End homemaker, wondered about the connection between cancer and nutrition. “Of course, it's advertising for them (KFC), but they are doing it. Leave them alone,” said Bond 71, a nine-year breast cancer survivor. “I grew up on bacon, red beef, butter, and Coca-Cola and I still eat them. I don't know anything that does not cause cancer. I wish it had made me exercise more.”
Shortly after Christmas, breast cancer survivor Hamblin-Smith submitted her story to Komen, and was selected to join roughly 300 breast cancer survivors and victims whose names are printed on the buckets.
Two trophy pink buckets, donated by family members who bought and ate KFC in her honor, decorate the office where she works as spokeswoman for the Louisville-area branch of the Better Business Bureau.
“A bucket of chicken is not going to hurt you,” she said. “A bucket of chicken every day will.”
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