-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Eve Ellis, a major fundraiser for Susan G Komen for the Cure, has raised her last dollar for the charity. Ellis calls for the resignation of CEO and founder Nancy Brinker and the nine member board to be replace. In an angry letter, Ellis condemns the decision to end funding for Planned Parenthood’s breast screening as political and misguided.
The Komen brand may have been tarnished beyond salvation. Pulling funding for breast cancer screening for the poorest, underserved women in our society has turned a once beloved brand into a reviled brand in a mere couple of days.
While donations from the Planned Parenthood haters have helped, they may not be sustainable. Corporate sponsors may be having second thoughts. In a move perhaps unrelated to the Planned Parenthood episode, Pepperidge Farm is concluding “its sponsorship of Susan G. Komen for the Cure at the end of 2011 for business reasons.” General Mills and its Yoplait brand of yogurt “will continue to partner with organizations that will have the greatest impact in that fight.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
There are five “Races” coming up in March including the big one in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure has released a statement saying they were strongly opposed to the Planned Parenthood policy. What will be the turnout? Will there be protests?
The Komen brand will be tested in the coming months. Maybe appealing to religious conservatives will turn out to be a winning strategy.
H/T: The Guardian, POLITICO, Jodi Jacobson, The Hill, US News, LA Times, Advertising Age.
A fast way to have flat belly
The quick red
Might be some book-cooking going on here, apparently while working full time for the Bush Administration between June 2007 to January 2009.
“Komen Founder Nancy Brinker’s Mysterious Expense Report
Feb 13, 2012 4:45 AM EST Nancy Brinker, the powerhouse founder of the embattled Komen Foundation, billed her charity for $133,507 in expenses at a time when she had a full-time job elsewhere. Abigail Pesta and Aram Roston report on how her lavish spending and controversial leadership style alienated some staffers.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/13/komen-founder-nancy-brinker-s-puzzling-expense-report.html
Lottakatz I’d forgoten all about this great movie…thanks for the reminder!
Mike, I wish your answer had been otherwise but I’m not really surprised. I have always looked upon the economy as a multi-faceted ‘jewel’.
There’s the normal retail economy with wageslaves and manufacturers and the classic structure we are all conditioned to starting in grade school.
Then there’s the off the books economy that we peasants are part of, the street economy where money changes hands and goods and services are exchanged but no one is incorporated and no receipts are provided.
Then there’s the make-believe economy where strange instruments are conceived and pop into and out of the rarefied big-money universe like strange new, short lived particles and they’re just as unstable.
Then there’s the pervasive magma of petty corruptions and cronyism that underlies all public endeavors and authorities that all of our public institutions sit upon.
Then there’s the in-your-face criminal enterprises, the drug economy, counterfit goods, identity theft for profit etc.
I’ve always thought that our ability to maintain so many economic models at once was really a testament to the magnitude of our wealth and the resilience of our economy. We are drowning in money; what must our country’s real wealth be if the true amount was known? The level of crony-corruption (which to me translates to waste in that its a system that siphons generally public money into a few private hands) was just the cost of doing business, a surtax on the system. That we could have so much of it and it didn’t threaten to bring our economic system down was a hallmark of the strength of our economy. Bakshish and bid-rigging, it makes the world go around and worked pretty well too, until the greed got out of hand.
Your recommendations threatened to break someone’s rice-bowl, probably a whole tray of them, LOL, “YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale…”
“Mike, I wish your answer had been otherwise but I’m not really surprised.”
LK,
The sad thing was when I became the Director of Contracts, aka ACCO (Agency Chief Contracting Officer)for a large Sub Agency, of one of NYC’s largest Agency’s, I was required to take a two week course (held in the WTC of blessed memory)to become certified as a Professional Public Buyer (PPB). At the end of the course they gave an exam which I had to pass to get the promotion.
That course taught the ethics of being an ACCO
and the new NYC contracting law which was one of the best in the country. I found out afterwards that even with these excellent rules in place the Mayor’s minions still tried to work around them, I refused to. That was not nobility on my part, but the refusal to be a patsy for political opportunism, which I knew would blow up in my face. Also I believed those contracting rules ensured
fairness. My protection was I already had through tests the highest civil service rank attainable in my Agency, so the worst they could do to me was remove me as ACCO, they couldn’t fire me. This is why Civil Service was implemented and why despite numerous attacks it benefits us all.
Incidentally, that Executive Deputy Commissioner never came through with the big raise he promised me to take the job and I found out afterward he never had any intention to get it for me, even when I was in his good graces. I had no political connections that he perceived would benefit him. When my career took me to the heights of being a well known executive in my Agency and I would tell my wife about it flushed with excitement, she at first would be excited and proud. After awhile, as each new promotion never brought the extra money promised she told me the truth, that I had been in denial about “The longer the title, the lesser the money”. I always had my hopes though and were it not that way perhaps I would have lost my integrity.
Let’s see if this works… (I didn’t intend to post the same link twice.):
“Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature-length doc that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labeled a “dream cause,” has become concealed by a shiny, pink story of success. Each year, countless numbers of people raise millions of dollars in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve?”
Premiering at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kdCsW058R0&feature=related
Interesting side note. The coffee house I use … a privately owned, non-franchised business, always put those little straws into the opening of their to-go cups. The straws were decorated with a pink ribbon. This morning when I ordered my coffee, it came without a straw and thinking it had been an oversight, I asked for one.
“We aren’t using those because we no longer support Komen because of their actions against Planned Parenthood. We have ordered new straws but they aren’t in yet.” I was told.
How many do you have left? I asked.
“Oh, several boxes but Jim doesn’t care. We threw them all out.”
shg,
Yep
In Sweden we have a national charity with great local parent support, in spite of no grants. The investigating journalists on TV showed that the collecting organization, a separate corporation specializing in telephone campaigns, had a rake-off of 85 per cent.
The charity thought that 15 per cent for them was a good deal. Most of the 15 per cent went to their salaries, etc. And a few flyers.
It’s so damn dramatic when you see these media naive persons exposed and searching for explanations.
I’m sure we all have some that we would like to see so embarrassed.
Thanks Elaine!! I knew I had seen it somewhere.