KFC’s controversial “Buckets for the Cure” campaign has competition, when it comes to being pink … and green.
Enter Living Essentials’ 5-hour ENERGY®’s special raspberry flavor with five cents of every $2.16 bottle (the cost if you buy a 12-pack online) being directed to Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC).
To demonstrate its sincerity to the cause of beating breast cancer, 5-hour ENERGY issued a news release with the first quote coming from its Communications Director Melissa Skabich: “Our company has a strong history of supporting causes that fight breast cancer.”
The second quote came from her counterpart at LBBC.
“The financial contribution and the comprehensive media campaign by the makers of 5-hour ENERGY® products will help us to reach many people who are currently unaware of the programs and services that LBBC offers to those facing a breast cancer diagnosis,” said Kevin Gianotto, LBBC’s Associate Director, Marketing and Corporate Relations.
Thank God the 5-hour ENERGY’s registered trademark made it into the non-profit spokesman’s quote about the company’s “comprehensive media campaign.”
If this is such a noble cause, how about quotes from the principals (e.g., CEOs) at both 5-hour ENERGY and LBBC? Or does their absence suggest that just maybe the heads of these respective organizations are a tad sheepish about this marketing exercise?
If you don’t believe Melissa about her company’s dedication to the pink cause, check out the specially branded 5-hour ENERGY race car driven on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit by Clint Bowyer.
And if you still need further proof, just turn on your HDTV and it won’t be long before you see yet another 5-hour ENERGY ad for its special raspberry flavor, available thru December 31, with five cents of every bottle being directed to LBBC.
Let’s do the math.
You can buy 2,000 bottles at $2.16 each ($4,320) of raspberry 5-hour ENERGY and $100 will be donated to LBBC…
…or you could write a $100 check to “Living Beyond Breast Cancer.”
Hmmm…that means you could do just as much good in the fight against breast cancer, simply writing a $100 check and keeping $4,220 in your own pocket.
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As I write this particular Almost DailyBrett post, I do not want my prose to come across as yet another example of the old adage: No good deed goes unpunished.
Personally, I am a cancer survivor and my first wife died of stomach cancer. This is matter of deep concern to me. I want to beat all forms of cancer.
Last year, Living Essentials’ contributed $387,000 to fighting breast cancer and the company has pledged at least $75,000 this year. That’s real money. This is a vital cause. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a fact that certainly is not lost on the folks at 5-hour ENERGY.
The brass at 5-hour ENERGY has a fiduciary responsibility to its investors to do well in terms of the top line and the bottom line. The same management team should also do good by practicing corporate social responsibility (CSR), giving back to communities where it does business.
Fiduciary responsibility and corporate social responsibility are not mutually exclusive terms. But what happens when the first (fiduciary responsibility) is disguised as the second (CSR)?
Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) owns and operates KFC. Yum! Brands generated its own Pink Washing controversy when it introduced grilled chicken, pink “Buckets for the Cure” with a portion of the proceeds being directed to the equally controversial Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Was the marketing campaign for the pink buckets of grilled chicken a fiduciary exercise or a corporate social responsibility (CSR) endeavor or both? KFC reportedly delivered 50 cents for each bucket sold and raised $4.2 million.
The Oregon Ducks wore pink helmets for their October 19 football game against Washington State. After the game, the team auctioned off 25 of these helmets, raising $200,000 for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
What is 5-hour ENERGY promising? Wow, $75,000.
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Am I suggesting that companies can’t emphasize CSR, while keeping an eye on the bottom line? Absolutely not. McDonald’s is offering healthier food choices. Toyota unveiled the hybrid, energy-efficient Prius. Home Depot has given building materials to Habitat for Humanity.
About half of our public relations students at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) were comfortable with Yum! Brands’ “Buckets for the Cure” campaign, while the other half believed KFC was engaging in Pink Washing.
Almost DailyBrett contends that Living Essentials’ 5-hour ENERGY should have learned something from the Yum! Brands experience, and should have exercised greater caution.
Pledging a minimum of $75,000 is ridiculously low (basically a company rounding error), and less than seven figures is not sufficient when you consider the intense over-the-top marketing.
And speaking about swinging for the fences, the specially decaled 5-hour ENERGY® NASCAR racer fits the classic definition of in-your-face, and is clearly superfluous.
And at a minimum 5-hour ENERGY public relations types, ask your CEO and the chief executive of Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) to lend their names to the cause.
That way, 5-hour ENERGY would have a better chance of passing the giggle test, and deflecting the inevitable pink washing charges and allegations.
Can you spare a nickel?
http://www.naturalnews.com/037645_avon_breast_cancer_pinkwashing.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-hour_Energy
http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/?page_id=13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkwashing
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/72RO/5-hour-energy-raspberry-good-deeds
http://www.5hourenergy.com/5hrNews-2013-09-09.asp
http://www.shop5hourenergy.com/detail/5HR+RASPBERRY+12
http://www.naturalnews.com/028670_Komen_for_the_Cure_fraud.html
https://almostdailybrett.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/buckets-for-the-cure/
http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2013/10/oregon_football_ducks_pink_hel.html
(Almost) DailyBrett 
I donated to Breast Cancer Car Donations (CarDonations4Cancer.org) in the past. They have pretty awesome programs helping those who are battling Breast Cancer who can’t afford medical treatment.