Think Pink! Dialectical Tensions in Survivor Discourse About Corporate Support of Breast Cancer Awareness

Abstract

This study adopted a dialectical approach to explore the discourse of breast cancer survivors as they talked about and made sense of corporate involvement in promoting and sustaining breast cancer as a social cause. During semistructured interviews, participants reflected on the commercialization of breast cancer and seemed to grapple with corporate motives, corporate constructions of the disease, and corporate influence on their identity; thus, creating three dialectical tensions: (a) corporate altruism versus self-interest, (b) corporate romanticism versus reality, and (c) survivor identification versus disidentification. Corporations are encouraged to consider ways in which they might collaborate with survivors to BOTH maximize corporate profits AND propel the cause in positive and important ways.