Can't Hide Ugly: Pink Won't Save The NFL's And Fracking Companies' Images

It's absolutely horrendous that individuals, organizations and corporations would commandeer benevolent causes in order to improve their own tarnished public images. Yet, sadly, it happens all the time. Not very long ago, your favorite frozen pizza company was somewhat guilty of this:

DiGiorno jumped in on the #WhyIStayed hashtag Monday. They just didn't realize it was about domestic violence. pic.twitter.com/lYmn3Bsueq — Alex Wespi (@alexwespi) September 10, 2014

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which happens every year, in order to spread awareness about this awful disease. Indeed, one in eight females will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime, and it's the second leading cause of death among women.

This year alone, around 220,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and more than 40,000 will die. This is exceptionally tragic, and definitely a cause worthy of fighting for.

Accordingly, many commendable people are actively supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month by campaigning, educating and raising money.

At the same time, it's apparent that certain companies and organizations have hijacked the cause in order to improve their public image. This is despicable, and it needs to be exposed:

The NFL's Pink October Doesn't Donate Money To Breast Cancer Research

Football is America's most popular sport. What's not to love? There's drama, violence, strategy, struggle and triumph. Oh, and we can't forget about the commercial breaks; you have time to refill the bowl of nachos and grab another beer between plays.

Yet, it's become increasingly evident that the National Football League is a deeply troubled organization. It has dubious stances on drug use, and domestic violence especially. To be frank, it has pretty egregious positions on just about everything, and is obviously a tremendously flawed organization.

In addition to giving players harsher punishments for smoking marijuana than for beating women, the NFL has now hijacked Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

In the immortal words of "Dumb and Dumber," "Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this!" But there's nothing redeeming about this.

I'm sure that many people were under the perception that the proceeds from all of the pink gear that the NFL wears for Breast Cancer Awareness go to cancer research. Well, all of these people are wrong.

The NFL does not donate any money to breast cancer research. None, zilch, nada, absolutely nothing.

Instead of donating to breast cancer research, the NFL gives the money to the American Cancer Society (ACS). This might seem like a philanthropic thing to do, but it's actually leading to misinformation surrounding breast cancer as the money goes to an outdated campaign instead of research.

To defeat breast cancer, we need to continue advanced medical research while ensuring that people have the proper information. The NFL could easily change this, but obviously it's really only concerned with producing a positive public image, regardless of the actual impact.

Moreover, the NFL only donates about $1.1 million on average per year to ACS. Last year alone, the NFL made somewhere around $10 billion in revenue. Simply put, the NFL is greedy and full of sh*t.

So if you're buying all of that pink memorabilia because you want the money to go to breast cancer research, think again. If you want to make sure that you know what you're actually donating money to, check out Breast Cancer Action.

Fracking Companies Donate To Breast Cancer, While Also Pumping Cancer Causing Chemicals Into Our Water

Even if you don't know exactly what it is, you've probably heard about fracking. In case you're still unsure, here's the basic definition:

Fracking is the process of taking millions of gallons of water, mixing it with tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals and pumping the mixture underground at extreme pressure to break up rock formations and release oil or natural gas. Over 700 chemicals are commonly used in the process of drilling and fracking for oil and gas.

The chemicals used during this process can leak into local water sources and poison entire communities. It's terrible for the environment and for humans, plain and simple. In fact, a lot of the chemicals used during fracking are linked to carcinogens that have proven links to breast cancer.

Oil and gas companies don't care, however, because they want to keep making money.

Baker Hughes is a giant oilfields service company that routinely uses fracking to obtain its oil. Recently, this company had the audacity to produce pink drill bits for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It donated $100,000 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation.

They did all of this in spite of the fact that many breast cancer awareness organizations blatantly protest fracking because of its links to the disease.

Obviously, Baker Hughes thought this would be a boost for its public image. Yet, it seems that the company has insultingly assumed consumers are completely uneducated about the dangers of fracking.

This is yet another disgusting example of a company tying itself to an important cause it doesn't really care about at all.