Breast Cancer Awareness month (October) has been embraced in particular by the beauty industry – there’s hardly a brand out there that doesn’t do something ‘pink’ at this time of year. But, as the concept gathers momentum each autumn I can’t help wondering who exactly is the main beneficiary. While there’s no doubt that millions are raised each year through donations from sales of specially packaged beauty products, here are a few thoughts that might make you go hmmm.
Let’s take a fictitious cream and call it Beauty. Beauty sells at a beauty counter or store for £20. The cream is manufactured in X country where a commonplace minimum production run would be 2000 (but here you have consider the brands that produce hundreds of thousands of bottles of skin care/lipstick: the more you order, the cheaper it is). The estimated maximum cost of production per item is £2. Beauty goes then from the manufacturing plant to a distributor, who finds outlets to sell it. The distributor buys Beauty at £4 per bottle. The distributor sells Beauty on to a retailer for £10 per bottle, and the retailer, wanting a standard 50% margin (or profit) sells it to you for £20. Big brands cut out the distributor and sell direct. Bear in mind, however, that pure products, or those that use the highest quality ingredients may cost slightly more to produce than those that are 95% water. Hopefully, you get a rough idea of how costings are worked out.
So it doesn’t really take a genius to work out that say ‘10% of profits are donated to charity’ doesn’t actually add up to the whole heap of beans you’d think it might, because it isn’t 10% of £20. Then, there are the ones that offer ‘£1 from every sale goes to charity…’ One pound? All that profit that’s going on from conception to sale, and they’re giving a pound? Although I will point out that donations are given from the brand owner, not the retailer. What I loathe even more though, is the ones that say ‘a proportion of profits will be given to charity’ leaving a vague open door that nobody, particularly the consumer, is likely to check up on.
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When beauty products are repackaged for Breast Cancer Awareness month, they are designed to be obvious (hence the pink) and to draw us into buying them – because we want to help, right? But, the whole event has become as commercial as Valentine’s Day, with everyone jumping on the bandwagon offering to give away varying amounts. And of course, the more you buy, the more profit (because beauty companies aren’t giving up even nearly their entire profit even on only one product) goes to the beauty companies. You’d genuinely be better off giving straight to a favourite charity because at least then they’d actually get the entire amount, not some woolly, unspoken figure that’s totted up at the end of October and given out.
It’s also not that unusual for last year’s stock to re-emerge the following October – if it didn’t sell sufficiently the previous year, and it’s been specially packed, stamped or marked in some way for Breast Cancer, then the costs involved in repackaging are too high, and they have to be sold in order to make profit.
It can’t be ignored that the beauty industry makes a huge amount of money for Breast Cancer Charities; the sad thing is that for an industry that relies so heavily on women, they could do so much more.
I’m almost sure I will be bombarded with statistics from beauty companies after this, but seriously, don’t tell me – tell the real donors, the customers.
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All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.
10 comments
I agree. My motto is buy pink if you need pink. If you were already planning on buying that item, why not buy it pink? But the best way to support the cause is to donate direct – whether it’s time or money or something else entirely.
I never really thought about it like that. Thanks for the interesting insight
Hear it from the inside realms of someone that knows… these corporate beauty machines have definetely jumped on the commercial bandwagon and have made us think that they are “giving something back”… blah blah blah, it is just a ploy to increase sales in the month of October and look good in the process. In practice whilst these companies are seen to be giving what looks generous the consumer is ultimately lining the pockets of the top dogs!
Instead beauty companies should really do more to show their support by handing over all profits made for that particular pink product!!
Well said.
Ali
Bravo and thank you for posting this, I was just looking at some nail polishes for £20 where £3 went to Breast Cancer, I think I’ll just £20 directly as I have enough nail polish!
I’ve thought about this issue once or twice, but never really sat down and really worked out the details, so a huge thankyou for posting this.
I, like OxfordJasmine, would just prefer to give the £20 directly to the charity.
I do like MAC’s system for the Viva Glam line, 100% of the sale price goes to their HIV charity.
Very well-written. In fact, it does not only happen to this Breast Cancer Awareness month, but also many other so-called charity fund-raising. The charities don’t always get the full amount that we paid for a product sold for its purpose.
Great post. This has bugged me for years. I only buy products that give 100% of proceeds, otherwise I just give direct to the charity in question.
Great article BBB. There’s definitely more that could be done.
However, it is fair to say that the brands do raise awareness of a very important cause, reaching out to thousands pf people that might otherwise be oblivious to the charity’s plight. So whilst the charity might not profit too much from the beauty brands involvement, they may well benefit in the long term through an increased consumer awareness. These consumers may then choose to donate directly to the charity. Here’s hoping this is what happens as its a fantastic cause and perhaps the brands might also decide to become a bit more generous with their donations!
Here’s a link to an IRish website which gives the details of what’s out there for BReast Cancer Awareness month and what percentage goes to the charity http://www.ivenus.com/#/2974
The best has to be Bobbi Brown-Pink Ribbon Collection, costs 40 euro and of that 40 euro goes directly to Irish cancer charities