History
The first known use of a pink ribbon in connection with breast cancer awareness was in the fall of 1991, when the Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to participants in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors.
The pink ribbon was adopted as the official symbol of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month the next year, in 1992. The pink ribbon was derived from the popular red ribbon for AIDS awareness. Alexandra Penney, the editor-in-chief of the women's health magazine Self, and breast cancer survivor Evelyn Lauder, the senior corporate vice president at the cosmetics company Estée Lauder created a ribbon for the cosmetics giant to distribute in stores in New York City.
Estée Lauder and Self initially approached Charlotte Haley, who had began a peach-coloured ribbon campaign to press the National Cancer Institute to increase its budget for cancer prevention research. Haley refused to be part of what she felt was a commercial effort, so Estée Lauder and Self changed the color of their ribbon to light pink in 2005, to circumvent Haley's efforts to stop them.
A pink and blue ribbon is sometimes used to symbolize breast cancer in men, which is relatively rare. The pink and blue ribbon was designed in 1996 by Nancy Nick, president and founder of the John W. Nick Foundation to bring awareness that "Men Get Breast Cancer Too!"
Read more about this topic: Pink Ribbon
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
“All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. All other history defeats itself.
In Beverly Hills ... they don’t throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows.
Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.”
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)