A few weeks ago I was browsing Facebook when

I noticed similar statuses popping up in my news feed.

They all read along the lines of “I like it on the kitchen table” or “I like it on the floor.”

Only after several confusing minutes about my suddenly overly promiscuous friends and a quick Google search did I find out that the “I like it” campaign was encouraging women to say where they like to put their purse to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

OK, not the most obvious campaign technique, but surprising and attention getting nonetheless.

A few days later when I did my grocery shopping last week and several of the items I purchased had a pink sticker, label or packaging. My mushrooms were snuggly nestled into a pale pink foam carton instead of the familiar blue.

And I imagine a public relations campaign has become successful when it gets professional football players, the manliest of the testosterone filled meat-eating man world, to wear bright pink shoes, gloves and other accessories.

I am not opposed to promoting breast cancer by any means. I know a lot of money is being donated to research and cancer patients, but some of the awareness efforts seem a little excessive.

Statistically speaking it is likely in my lifetime someone in my family or my group of friends will develop breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer for women and according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006, 191,410 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,820 women died from it.

But breast cancer rates third most common, behind lung and prostate.

The odd thing about it is you don’t see the scale of support for Lung Cancer Awareness Month in November or for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September.

What started out as a people wearing pink ribbons to support Breast Cancer awareness has turned into a popularity contest of who can support Breast Cancer the most with the most outrageous slogans such as T-shirts that read “Save Second Base.”

The only reason I could come up with for the extensive support for this movement was the American obsession with breasts.

But with all the hype I wonder if we are

forgetting something.

Is the rush to “go pink” and “save the Ta-Tas” (another T-shirt) is the actual cause of supporting funding and research for breast cancer in danger of being overlooked?

Emily Steele is a senior political journalism major. She can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].