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>> welcome back, we're talking about the saturation of all things pink during breast cancer awareness month. and whether it's improving women's health. and there's no shortage of companies attaching themselves to this. >> we're seeing everything from shoes to pens, on my screen right now, i have boots, and butternut squash ravioli, and from our streamer, andrea, she notes there

are pink drill bits. a leading company released these drill bits. so gayle, in terms of all of this marketing and branding, it's good for companies, but what else should we be looking at with this issue? >> well, it's very good for companies, and this is one of the key issues of the commercialization of the disease. companies are jumping on the pink ribbon bandwagon and making a lot of money, and even if they do donate, many of them do not, some do, and i would almost guarantee that the profit margin is significantly higher than the donation. [ audio difficulties ] they're bitting more. if you buy this product, that's

happening. >> lisa, nobody expects businesses to do things for free, and how do you respond. >> i think that one of the things we expect is that companies schmoe where their money is going. for example, i was in a store today. and they were running a breast cancer promotion, and they said, we're going to donate a percentage of sales today to breast cancer research. and i said, okay, that's great. what is the organization you're donating to, and how will that money be used in and they just looked at me blankly, they didn't know the information. how much money was going to be given, what percentage. this was just a script that they were reciting because they felt that if they aligned themselves with pink and breast cancer

awareness month, that was automatically kind of something sacred and nobody was going to challenge them. >> how do you tell the difference between marketing and companies that are doing this to simply capitalize on this, that it's such an invisible campaign? >> first of all, and. ask the store, reading the fine print of products is very important. so if it just says something vague like goes to the fight against breast cancer or goes to research, it's so ambiguous that you can't actually follow the money. and it's very port to follow the money. and then it's important to follow the messages as well. what are the messages being sent? what organizations are they going to? do those organizations have financial reports that you can find? can you follow up and see if they're doing anything that's

helpful. >> this has been on the community's mind a lot. where is the money going: dr. love, where is the money going and how do we be informed consumers in. >> to be fair, some of the money was actually well spent. so red line, the first cause of marketing, because initially, companies didn't want to align themselves with breast cancer, they were afraid today scare women away, and revlon funded a lot of the ucla research, a very important drug in breast cancer treatment. so some of the money really does go to good things and good research, but you have to look and find out and some of the companies will donate without you buying a product.

now, when you're a breast cancer research organization as we are, we do need that money. it actually does go to research, and it is a good source of funding, so it's a balance. and i think what gayle was saying, you have to think before you pink, and look into it. and if it does look like they're doing something valuable and they're giving a significant amount of money, maybe it is wort it, and if not, maybe not. >> i would also like to suggest that instead of buying products that are pink or have a ribbon on them, if people want their money to go to good organizations, take the money directly and research the organizations and give it directly to the organizations themselves. just give the money there and forget the pink shoes and the pink drill bits and do your research and give that money directly to the organizations, especially the ones that give research grants and do good work. >>

the saturation of the pink has kind of lent itself to blacktivism. and i didn't invent that word. put a ribbon on this event and give hundred and wear pompoms, and do whatever you're going to do for the cause, it creates a scenario before you don't have to think before you pink. so now we're in a situation where we have to reverse that. >> is it possible to dial this back to a point where it really is helpful? dr. love, can it be dialed back, should it be dialed back. >> well, it can, if enough people and questions and really look at what's happening behind the pink, then the companies will sort of cleanup for act. the fact that they get away with it makes them do it more. but there are other things that

women with do more. if you can't donate, you can participate in research. we have women studies where you fill out questions online overtime. and we need healthy women with breast cancer, and what causes it, and what is the best mechanism for prolonging the quality of life with breast cancer as long as we can. so there are alternatives to buying pink products and things, and i actually try not to wear pink as much as possible because it's overwhelming. but i think that if we call the companies on it, we can maybe change the culture of the companies. >> we need to call the charities on it too. there are some 1300 non-profits in the u.s. that are somehow associated with breast cancer, and it's a lot. and there are new ones every day probably. so when you see all of that stuff, and all of that

organizing around breast cancer, you have to really vet the organizations, because some are doing fabulous, fabulous work, but you can't tell unless you look, but that is the message, you have to look. >> good point. >> speaking of messages, what important messages are getting lost in all of this pink marketing? and has the success of the campaign been a at the expense f other issues? millions who need assistance now. we appreciate you spending time with us tonight. up next is the golden age of hollywood going golden but elsewhere.

why l.a.'s mayor has declared a state of emergency for the entertainment industry there. next.

>> welcome back, we're talking about what's getting lost in all of the pink of breast cancer awareness month. and dr. love, a sea of pink created a sensation between the success of the awareness campaign and the success of fighting and treating breast cancer? >> well, i think it has, and i think that everything, we overdiagnoses and over treat breast cancer, but one of the

down sides of mammography that doesn't get talked about a lot, it finds a lot of things that weren't going to be a problem in the first place, some you're down playing and some overtreat. and we make it sound like everything is fine and it's all a success, and i think that really interferes with people understanding the disease and the treatments and the treatments have significant side effects and collateral damage. it's one thing to talk about breasts off and getting new ones, but people don't think about the fact that they're completely numb, and you have no sensation, and you may have significant problems from the surgery. so we need to be realistic about what the disease is, and how prominent it is, and what the treatments do, and maybe focus more on fighting the cause. my big model

is cancer of the cervix, we took out normal body parts, and then we found out that it was a virus, and now we have a vaccine. in 30 years, we went from cutting out normal body parts, and in breast cancer, we're still cutting out normal body parts. >> the campaign and if it's more helpful or harmful. gayle, what do you think. >> well, breast cancer right now as it stands is a proxy for women's health.

and if you support breast cancer, you're supporting women's health. but what we're not tending to see is the fact that heart disease kills more women than campus, and lung disease kills more women, and ovarian cancer is a significant disease for women if terms of death rates, and we tend not to see those kinds of things, and when you look beyond women's health, with he don't see men's health issues in this environment either. lisa mentioned that we don't see men with breast cancer. 1% of cases involve men, but having men into this pink world. so i would agree that there is kind of a cottage industry that has developed around breast cancer itself.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. here are the stories we're following for you. cyclone phailin makes landfall at 150 mph. it is twice the size of super storm sandy. no deal and no negotiations with the white house. that's the word on the government shutdown. and round three of the security talks in afghanistan. at issue how many u.s. troops will stay after next year. you. >> in washington there is a lot of talk about a