NFL continues reach for female fans through breast cancer awareness

[Rhinodawg]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/09/30/nfl-breast-cancer-awareness/16508773/


The NFL's annual breast cancer awareness campaign, always in October, has long been the league's most substantial plan to appeal to women.

Stadiums will be awash in pink starting Thursday when the Minnesota Vikings visit the Green Bay Packers.

With the NFL under attack over its handling of players accused of domestic violence, its efforts to raise awareness toward breast cancer could fall flat; after all, the off-the-field trouble led Procter and Gamble to remove its sponsorship of the event.

"It will be harder to take it seriously, absolutely," said Anne Osborne, an associate professor of communications at Syracuse who has spent the past five years researching the NFL's female fan base. "I think even before all of this, you would hear people routinely say that they don't get the connection between football and breast cancer. It's not a natural connection. For some people it seemed like just a PR effort to acknowledge women's presence around football. Now in light of all of this, it will ring as sort of hollow."

[yeoman6987]

1. Maybe a bit hypocritical,

But to breast cancer survivor, the awareness and funding has done a lot of good.

[Rhinodawg]

2. I have to agree with you.

[unblock]

3. jumping on the overfull breast cancer p.r. bandwagon.

this stinks of cynical p.r.

mrs. unblock is a breast cancer survivor, but she's done some digging into the charity aspects of it and it's ridiculously overfunded compared to other diseases, even other types of cancer. the extra money is not going to research, that's long been saturated. the extra money is mostly going to "administrative costs", and making sure there are plenty of magazines and soft mood music in pink waiting rooms. that's not without value, but there are many other diseases desperate for funds and plenty of diseases for which no real research is being done at all.

even within the realm of female-specific cancer, they could have given to ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancer research, just to name a few. giving to the breast cancer cause has long been a standard p.r. move to appeal to women, and it's certainly great that breast cancer research has all the funding it needs, but it's gone well past the point of making real sense in terms of a good investment that serves the interests of women.

think before you pink.

[Rhinodawg]

5. To be fair....

they have been involved in this for several several years.

[unblock]

7. well, yeah -- 2009. but this year is different....

[Kalidurga]

4. I am glad that it's done some good,

but the pink stuff has to go. I think they should just put a sticker or something on their helmets.

[Rhinodawg]

11. I kinda like it.

I was going to put a bid in this year...its for a good cause.

[Wait Wut]

6. Seriously?

They have mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, girlfriends, aunts, female cousins, friends...many of these guys have been touched by breast cancer. One of the most active advocates of breast cancer awareness I know is a man. His wife had breast cancer. He's more of an activist than she is. He worries about his daughters.

Another good friend of mine (a far right nutjob, with a heart of gold) puts together a domestic violence awareness walk every year and participates in others. He's a guy.

Is it PR? All of it is. Every pink ribbon, banner, t-shirt, poster, commercial, etc. is PR. But, that doesn't mean the men and women participating aren't truly fighting for a cause. If it raises money for whatever the cause, it works. That's what matters.

[Johonny]

8. "the connection between football and breast cancer is ratings." It isn't actually hard to understand

Having awareness programs on things that no one watches isn't that big a help to raising awareness. NFL football attracts viewers and fans. I mean it attracts the most viewers period of any single thing on TV year in and year out.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/10/nfl-television-ratings

See number 5 Sunday Night Football is the most popular program among women aged 18-34.
or number 6 It’s tied at No. 1 among women aged 18-49 with The Voice.

Sunday Night Football is the most popular program among women aged 18-34. No seriously. How are ratings this year doing... they are up even with all the bad news. Why does breast cancer awareness bother with the NFL? Because it is television programs that is the single most popular thing even among target groups like young woman age 18-49! Does it ring hollow that the NFL doesn't really care? Who the fuck cares if they're heartless bastards or not. The point of breast cancer awareness is to get woman the medical attention they need in time for it to do them the most good.

It is an awareness programs and the NFL is the most popular thing on TV. Not hard to understand at all.

[logosoco]

9. I am not knocking this campaign, it is always good to be aware of things,

but it seems to me that in the late 80s, and the 90s there was actually a lot of things explaining to women how to do a self breast exam and to get checked by a doctor. Since this pink campaign started, it seems like the whole focus is just on wearing pink, not actually letting women know the first steps are in checking for breast cancer.

Or maybe I am just getting old and not paying attention to things like i used to?

[Rhinodawg]

10. You bring up a good point.

well, they do contribute a large amount of money to fight breast cancer.

not that I'm excusing them for everything else.

[dr.strangelove]

12. Personally - I could care less if it is a ratings grab

I wish baseball, tennis, hockey, soccer, cricket and every other sport would make the awareness push the NFL makes. It raises tons of money, but more importantly it spreads awareness. I know the first time I asked my wife if she had her first mamogram was during an Oregon ducks "pink" game. Awareness increases testing and early discovery. Let the NFL have all its stupidity, but keep pushing awareness every October. It actually helps.

[Brickbat]

13. I'd rather that health care research and availability were funded properly so we didn't have to go

through the PR charade of pink shoes and ribbons.

[Rhinodawg]

14. Hey....some of us like pink shoes and ribbons.

[HereSince1628]

15. NFL give 5% of sales of NFL breast awareness items to charity.

I heard this afternoon on WSCR sports radio from Chicago.

He cited writings by a woman whose name I don't remember...

One of the hosts suggested wearing pink was more about marketing the items in the gift shops and on line, than it was about promoting awareness.One line of argument was...the US already has awareness of breast cancer.

This same set of hosts had zero tolerance for excuses and rationales when it came to domestic and child abuse, so I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that because it was a sports radio station it was somehow biased against the pink souveniers.

[Rhinodawg]

16. 5% ??

gee whiz

[HereSince1628]

17. Apparently an example of self-serving "strategic" philanthropy

That exploits nfl fans misunderstanding about to whom they are donating when they buy such stuff.