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Thursday
September 30, 2010 Industry Joins Fight Against Breast CancerFiled under: Industry Initiatives, Using Ad Specialties In October, during National Breast Cancer Awareness month, the promotional products industry is following the lead of the NFL, MLB and NHL to help raise money for cancer research – using unique, sports-themed items targeted at men. Pink boxing gloves, hockey pucks, baseball bats and beyond are joining the ubiquitous pink ribbons adorning women’s fashion to raise money and awareness. Anyone trying to raise money for this cause should consider broadening their scope to include men – and what better way to do that than with stuff you can hit, throw, whack and wear? The professional sports community jumped on the cancer awareness bandwagon with campaigns like NFL’s A Crucial Catch. In partnership with the American Cancer Society, the NFL is auctioning off pink game apparel worn during October. Major League Baseball auctions off pink Louisville Sluggers during games played on Mother’s Day and the National Hockey League raises money through its Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. Numerous promotional products companies are also donating a portion of profits from pink items to the cause, including Alumicolor, of Fort Collins, Colorado, which donates 10% of the list price of aluminum pink rulers to breast cancer research, and Kingport Industries, of Northbrook, Illinois, which donates a portion of profits from its “pink ribbon” collection to the American Cancer Society and other affiliated organizations. Diana Haake, owner of Promotional Product Partners, created several hundred shirts for a breast cancer awareness event last year. “It brought in students from several local high schools for an all-day event, and they received the shirt for participating,” she says. “It was very well received.” Another distributor, Win Oppel, president of Ad-Merica (asi/107275), recently created breast cancer awareness umbrellas for a client. He’s also worked with St. Vincent’s Medical Center Foundation in Connecticut on developing a set of ornaments, featuring a logo designed by a volunteer at the foundation and her niece. And Ash City USA (asi/37127) launched a “We’re Thinking Pink” campaign to help fund research for the American Breast Cancer Foundation. ASI reviewed some of the products available throughout the industry and devised a Top 10 “think pink” list of sports-themed products that can be used for breast cancer awareness promotions and fundraising drives:
Let me know what charitable organizations you’re helping by posting a comment or emailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. 1 CommentLeave a Comment |
These are fantastic. Thank you Tim for always being ontop of the latest trending in the promotional products and ad specialty world. I especially like a couple months ago when you posted a comment on promotional pens that doubled up as hand sanitizers. Brilliant Idea!