Pink Ribbons, Inc.
Told largely through talking-head interviews with breast cancer survivors, philanthropists, activists, and critics (including Nickel and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich), Pink Ribbons, Inc. casts its critical net wide. The film looks at the ways in which runs, walks, and jumps for the hope, the cure, and the cause work to create a confused culture that benefits corporate sponsors more than cancer sufferers.
In one of its most elegant strokes, Pink Ribbons argues that the move toward walks, runs, and other fundraising events functions as a sanitary streamlining of the more engaged protests and marches that were common in the ’80s and early ’90s, when awareness of the breast cancer epidemic was first emerging. It also challenges the logic of “cause marketing,” where companies can fatten their bottom lines by promising that a certain portion of sales will fund breast cancer research. Beyond its immediate, eye-opening ramifications, Pool’s film also functions as a critique of capitalism itself and the mentality of tossing money at a problem in hopes that it can be solved. A nervy, exceptionally informative film.